125 923
Jesuits in d>lcl
A Sfcetct of Jesuit Activities in tke Pacific Nortkwest
Tne Jesuits in Old
Oreon
William N. BiscLoff, SJ.
QONZAOA UNIVERSITY
1840-1940
THE CAXTON PRINTERS, LTD. - -
LEO D. SULLIVAN, SJ.
Provincial of the Chicago Province
KtlyU ohaiai
JOSEPH M. EGAN, SJ.
Censor dcputatuf
SAMUEL A. STRITCH, D D.
Archbishop of Chicago
October 12, 1543
COPYRIGHT 1945 BY
THE CAXTON PRINTERS, LTD.
CALDWELL, IDAHO
Printed and bound in the United States of America by
The CAXTON PRINTERS, Ltd.
Caldwell, Idaho
TO MY MOTHER
AND
I3ST MEMORY OF MY FATHER
Pref,
ace
THIS BOOK IS AN INTRODUCTION TO A FASCINATING, BUT
generally ignored, field of study. These pages make no
pretense at being a history of the Pacific Northwest; nor
do they constitute a history of the Catholic Church in
the Pacific Northwest; finally, they do little more than
indicate the rich story, yet to be fully told, of the con-
tribution made to the religious, social, and intellectual
betterment of this area by the members of the Society of
Jesus.
Those scholars with sufficient background to formu-
late an opinion will admit that the history of the Pacific
Northwest has been neglected until quite recent years.
Still less has been written concerning the role of Catholic
missionaries in the exploration, settlement, and educa-
tional development of this important region of the
United States. The present work is intended as a partial
rectification of such an undesirable state of affairs.
A word about the general plan of the book may not
be out of place. Material has been grouped geographi-
cally rather than chronologically. Many events hap-
pened almost simultaneously in widely separated places,
thus furnishing excellent grounds for the confusion of
anyone attempting a historical reconstruction of scenes
long past. Therefore, the foundations and activities of
a limited territorial area are treated together. The result
of this type of arrangement is not completely satisfac-
yii
VU1
PREFACE
tory, but it does avoid the muddle consequent upon any
attempt to compress the story of a century into a few
hundred pages and at the same time retain an unbroken
chronological order*
Like many others, this book is a co-operative venture.
To many people the author is under obligation for their
patience and assistance. Especially to the Very Reverend
Leo J. Robinson, S.J., Rev. William G. Elliott, S J., and
Rev. Paul P. Sauer, S.J., for granting the opportunities
for study; to William A. Laney, S.J., Rev- Adolph A.
Bischoff , S.J., and some of my former students, who are
now serving our nation in the Armed Forces, for un-
stinted help in collecting historical material. Special
thanks, too, are due to Rev. Andrew Vachon, S J., for
the frontispiece and the design for the jacket. The
laborious task of reading and criticizing the manuscript
has been generously performed by Rev. David P. Mc-
Astocker, S.J., William T. Costello, S.J., and Mr. Philip
N. Starbuck. To the latter the writer is especially obli-
gated. The careful compilation and delineation of the
maps by Rev. Jerome V. Jacobsen, S J., and Richard M.
O'Brien, elicit the author's sincere thanks. The con-
sideration shown by the publishers is gratefully acknowl-
edged. Finally, the author thanks Rev. William L. Davis,
S.J., scholar and friend, whose counsel and encourage-
ment have never been withheld. Lack of space prevents
individual mention of each service rendered by those
companions who have helped in countless ways, but the
author is none the less deeply grateful for their assistance.
For permission to quote or paraphrase copyrighted
material, indicated in the bibliography, the writer is
indebted to the following: the Most Reverend Joseph F,
McGrath, D.D., Bishop of Baker City, Oregon; The
PREFACE ix
American Catholic Historical Society; Benziger Broth-
ers; Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions; P. J. Kenedy &
Sons; The Catholic Sentinel; Little, Brown and Com-
pany; The Messenger of the Sacred Heart; The Pacific
Northwest Quarterly; Saint Anthony Guild Press; and
The Wickersham Printing Company.
In making these acknowledgments the writer, of
course, assumes all responsibility for the contents and
conclusions of this book.
W.N,B.,SJ.
Chicago, Illinois
November 9, 1943
Tame or Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A CALL FOR BLACKROBES 1
II. PRELIMINARY RECONNAISSANCE BY FATHER DE SMET . 8
III. THE FOUNDING OF ST. MARY'S MISSION AMONG THE
FLATHEADS 26
IV. EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES ... 38
Sacred Heart Mission among the Coeur d'Alenes . . 38
S/. Francis Xavier's Mission in Oregon 44
St. Ignatius Mission among the Kalis pels .... 50
Missionary Stations along the Upper Columbia and
Fraser Rivers 55
The Founding of St. Paul's Mission at Kettle Falls . 61
V. JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 64
St. Mary's Mission among the Flatheads 64
St. Ignatius Mission 70
Stations Served from St. Ignatius' 83
St. Peter's Mission 86
Helena 95
Holy Family Mission 100
St. Paul's Mission among the Assmiboins and Gros
Ventres 106
St. Francis Xavier's Mission among the Cr ows . . . 113
St. Joseph Labre's Mission 123
VI. MISSIONS AMONG THE COEUR D'ALENES AND NEZ
PERCYS 129
Sacred Heart Mission ,...,.. 129
St. Joseph's Mission 141
xi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
VII. EARLY MISSIONS IN THE INLAND EMPIRE 153
St. Paul's Mission at Kettle Falls 153
St. Francis Regis' Mission 156
St. Mary's Mission (Okanogan) ....... 162
VIII. SPOKANE MISSION AND THE RISE OF GONZAGA UNI-
VERSITY 168
IX. ST. JOSEPH'S MISSION (YAKIMA) AND ITS STATIONS . 182
Alaska 192
Seattle 194
Tacvrna 198
Port Tovvnsend 199
X. OREGON JESUITS IN WYOMING AND SOUTH DAKOTA . 200
St. Stephen's Mission 200
St. Fronds' Mission, South Dakota 203
Holy Rosary Mission, South Dakota 204
XL AMONG THE INDIANS AND WHITES IN OREGON . . , 207
St. Andrew's Mission among the Umatillas . . . . 207
Klamath Falls 211
Portland 212
Novitiate of St. Francis Xavier 213
XII. CONCLUSION 214
Biographical Appendix 217
Notes 235
Bibliography 245
Index 252
List or Maps
PAGE
Montana 64
Idaho 129
Washington 153
Wyoming 200
South Dakota 204
Oregon 207
Introduction
THE PLACES MENTIONED IN THIS VOLUME ARE WELL
known, and many of the men whose names loom large on
these pages are familiar to me, some of them being per-
sonal friends and comrades.
Those of us who came from British Columbia and at-
tended Gonzaga University were bound, sooner or later,
to meet the dynamic little missionary, Father Folchi. As
the author accurately testifies, conductors and engineers
did his bidding graciously and joyously. Even the rail-
road's owner, James J. Hill, received not the deep devo-
tion and sincerity bestowed on Father Folchi.
Then there was Father George de la Motte, the noble-
man, the intellectual giant above all else, the missionary
par excellence. Because of his mastery over the various
Indian languages, he was in great demand. Whenever a
resident missionary took sick, Father de la Motte, though
burdened with many responsibilities as superior of the
missions, would set out immediately to supply for the
sick priest. Possibly the last letter Father George de la
Motte wrote was the one in which he told us that, if we
obtained the necessary permission, he would gladly act as
instructor. We were filled with enthusiasm. What a
glorious privilege to make tertianship alone at St. Igna-
tius with Father de la Motte as Tertian Master! But this
was not to be. A few days later, on Good Friday, came
xvi INTRODUCTION
news of his death. Thus passed a gallant soldier of the
Cross.
We lived with the founder of Saint Paul Mission for
four years at Havre, Montana. Father Eberschweiler
loved to recall the old days. It was he who worked so
strenuously to stop Louis Riel from arousing the Indians
of Canada to revolt, but his efforts were in vain.
The good old Padre used to describe how one day he
met Riel, riding on horseback with two companions,
between Fort Benton and Saint Paul Mission. The Father
(on horseback too) stopped the trio, and strove once
more to forestall the inevitable. "Supposing you win
every battle, but in each engagement you lose fifty men
then you will ultimately be defeated."
"Father Eberschweiler, you are a good man, but you
have not been obliged to endure the many injustices
which the Indians to the north of you have suffered. I
tell you finally, I intend to go through with the revolt."
At this juncture, Father Eberschweiler rode away a
distance with one of Kiel's companions and heard his
confession. When the two returned to meet the two
who awaited them, Riel was in a pensive mood. Looking
across the gully and up the adjacent hill, Riel said,
"Father Eberschweiler, I see a gallows on top of that hill
and I am swinging from it."
RiePs prophecy proved correct. He was hanged after-
ward in Regina, One of Riel's companions on that trip
escaped into Montana and visited the good Padre. He
was unharmed, except for a wound from a bullet that
had plowed its way (as one parts his hair in the middle)
from forehead to the back of the skull. Outside of a
certain amount of disfigurement, no permanent injury
INTRODUCTION xvii
was incurred. He attributed his miraculous escape to the
efficacious prayers of the Father.
Here again we are f ailing into the same mistake as
Father Eberschweiler: we are musing over the past,
dreaming of former days when the West was young and
as illimitable as the broad wind-swept prairies.
Father Bischoff's volume will aid you, kind reader, in
reconstructing this adventurous and interesting era.
DAVID P. McAsrocKER, S. J.
Riverside, California
November 8, 1941
Tlxe Jesuits in Old
A Call for BlackroLes
A CENTURY AGO THE OREGON COUNTRY WAS, FOR MOST
people, that vast, indefinite, and undetermined land
which lay west of the Rocky Mountains, north of Span-
ish California, and south of the Russian establishments.
These boundaries were soon to be more carefully drawn.
But for the ordinary person, many years were to pass
before the Oregon Country came to be considered as a
possible place in which to make one's home. Traders,
trappers, squaw men, and fugitives might well and did
call this terrifying region home. For most others, it
was the most primitive of lands a land of savages, of
boundless deserts, of towering peaks, of plunging tor-
rents. Here one had to struggle against conspiring ele-
ments and prowling natives to eke out the meanest
existence.
Yet to this forbidding region the Catholic missionaries
were invited by both natives and whites. To this invita-
tion they responded with enthusiasm. Gladly they under-
took perilous posts where those who would do God's
work could depend on God alone for help and protection.
The Jesuits were not the first priests to bring the Cath-
olic religion to Oregon. As a matter of historical fact, the
Franciscan Friars had preceded by fifty years any of
those priests about whom this narrative deals. The re-
mains of the Spanish Franciscan missions were seen and
described by Father J. B. Bolduc when he arrived in
2 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Oregon in 1842. 1 A second point to be kept in mind is
that the first to spread the tidings of the Catholic faith
to the interior tribes were the trappers and other em-
ployees of the different fur companies established in the
country beyond the mountains. We shall see that these
employees, or those already retired from the fur com-
panies, were white men, as well as half-breeds and In-
dians, and that each was to play a significant role in the
story. These venturesome souls had learned their religion
in Montreal or Quebec, and, though they were Catholics
at heart, often enough their lives left much to be desired.
These voyageurs, as they came to be known, were
much in evidence in the expedition of Lewis and Clark
in 1805; they were even more prominent in the fur
brigade of John Jacob Astor in 1811. The skill, endur-
ance, and bravery of these Canadians made them the
most-sought-for canoemen in the world. So renowned
for their skill and prowess, they were also great home
builders. Thus, the founders of the first American settle-
ment in Oregon soon became the first settlers in the
Willamette Valley. "In Astor's expedition there were
thirteen Canadians nearly all of whom were Catholics,
. . . " 2 To this nucleus of the future Catholic settle-
ment there was added a number of former employees of
the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver. Upon
the expiration of their term of service, Dr, John Mc~
Loughlin supplied them with the provisions and farming
implements which made it possible for them to settle in
the Willamette Valley.
These people begged Joseph Norbert Provenchcr,
Titular Bishop of Juliopolis, with headquarters at Red
River, Manitoba, to quiet their yearnings by sending a
pastor for their little flock. 3 Replying on June 6, 1835,
A CALL FOR BLACKROBES 3
to the repeated petition of the faithful, the prelate
acknowledged the receipt of the request for missionaries
and assured Dr. John McLoughlin:
My intention is to do all I can to grant them their request as soon as
possible, I have no priest disposable at Red River, but I am going this
year to Europe, and I will endeavor to procure those free people, and
then the Indians afterwards [,] the means of knowing God. I send
together with this letter an answer to the petition which I have
received; I request you to deliver it to them; . . . 4
The Bishop's answer to the petitions is filled with sympa-
thy and fatherly exhortation:
I have received, most beloved brethren, your two petitions, one
dated 3d July 1834, and the other 23d February 1835. Both call for
missionaries to instruct your children and yourselves. Such a request
from persons deprived of all religious attendance, could not fail to
touch my heart, and if it was in my power, I would send you some
this very year. But I have no priests disposable at Red River; They
must be obtained from Canada or elsewhere, which requires time.
I will make it my business in a journey which I am going to make this
year in Canada and in Europe. If I succeed in my efforts I will soon
send you some help. 5
Their venerable friend then exhorted the petitioners to
lead Christian lives, that their children as well as the In-
dians might learn the Christian religion from their ex-
ample even before the missionaries could arrive. They
should begin now to prepare their souls for the teachings
that would be brought by the missionaries.
My greatest consolation [concludes the Bishop] would be to learn
hereafter that as soon as this letter was read to you, you began to pay
a little more attention to the great affair of your salvation. 6
The course of events proved amply that Bishop Pro-
vencher sincerely and seriously intended to do all he
could for these neglected people who lived in the primi-
tive solitude.
4 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound
Save his own dashings
He appealed for aid to his confrere, Joseph Signay,
Bishop of Quebec. 7 There followed months of negotia-
tion, months of planning, months of disappointment and
discouragement. The Hudson's Bay Company con-
trolled all means of communication from Canada to
Oregon. The company also dominated in the name of
the Crown the future home of the hopeful missionaries
and the zealous followers of Christ, whoever they would
be, must prove satisfactory to the officials.
Finally, the long-awaited letter containing the needed
permissions reached Bishop Signay. Bishop Provencher
had agreed that the new mission should be established on
the Cowlitz north of the Columbia River, according to
the advice given him by George Simpson in the pre-
ceding year. The Bishop's gracious acceptance of Simp-
son's suggestions made it an easy matter to obtain passage
for two priests in the canoes of the westbound brigade
which would leave for the interior on April 2J, 1838.
The two priests were to embark at Lachine and, on ar-
rival at Fort Vancouver, measures would "be taken by
the Co.'s representative there to facilitate the establishing
of the mission, and the carrying into effect the objects
thereof generally." 8
Events now followed rapidly. Father Francis Norbert
Blanchet, Cur of Les Cedres, was given letters of vicar-
general, under date of April 17, 1838. His companion,
Father Modeste Demers, was awaiting him at Red
River. 10 The instructions of Bishop Signay to the brave
missionaries were realistic and comprehensive:
You must consider as the first object of your mission to withdraw
A CALL FOR BLACKROBES 5
from barbarity and the disorders which it produces, the Indians
scattered in that country.
Your second object is, to tender your services to the wicked
Christians who have adopted there the vices of the Indians, and live
in licentiousness and the forgetf ulness of their duties. 11
The priests were to preach the gospel in private and in
public. To multiply their efficiency, they were to learn
the native tongues as soon as possible. They were to bap-
tize those sufficiently instructed, that they might rectify
the most disgraceful condition on the frontier: irregular
unions between whites and natives. The education of
children was to be carried on in established schools "as
much as your means will allow." Finally, in the more
important places more crosses were to be planted, "so as
to take possession of those various places in the name of
the Catholic religion/' 12
These instructions were brief enough. Any one of
them would have entailed a lifetime of work. All of
them together were to cost suffering, sorrow, even death.
The mission was launched: the life's blood of many
would keep it afloat.
The story of Blanchet's and Demers' journey from
Quebec to Fort Vancouver was the story of every
westbound Hudson's Bay brigade. Yet there was a dif-
ference. These men were not adventurers leaving all that
w^s dear to them to carve out a kingdom in the wilder-
ness. These were not fugitives from justice, nor were
they fleeing from their own consciences. Rather, they
were soldiers of Christ journeying to a land they knew
not. They were bound for the frontier to traffic in
heavenly goods. They meant to regain those who had
forgotten and gain those who had never known.
From the moment Blanchet stepped into the light bark
6 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
canoe pushing off from Lachine, his missionary work had
begun. Along the way, both of the priests instructed
and baptized. Each stop was spent fully in exhorting
both Indian and white. The trail up rivers, across lakes,
through swamps, and over the towering Rockies brought
the missionaries to their chosen field, the Oregon Coun-
try. Then they traveled down the Columbia whose
treacherous waters claimed the lives of twelve com-
panions. Fort Colville, Fort "Walla Walla, The Dalles,
each in its turn saw the men of God come and go, and
was the better for the visit. The six months' journey
ended on November 24, 1838, with their safe arrival at
hospitable John McLoughlin's Fort Vancouver. The
first answer to the pleadings for missionaries had come.
There were priests in the Oregon Country.
Blanchet and Demers had been traveling two hundred
and six days to cover the 5,3 2 5 miles separating Quebec
and Fort Vancouver. Bishop Provencher had kept his
promise to the people of the Willamette Valley. He had
done all he could "to grant them their request as soon
as possible/' The Bishop had finished his letter with the
pious desire that the people pay a little more attention to
the great affair of their salvation. His desire was fulfilled,
and in 1836, when some reason had been given them for
hope, the settlers built a log church, seventy feet by
thirty feet. On January 6, 1839, the church was dedi-
cated to St. Paul
Even greater manifestations of love and good will met
the priests on their first visit to Willamette. The men
separated from their wives until the unions could be
blessed. Sometimes this meant a whole year until proof
of a former wife's death could come from Montreal;
And so great was their desire to have their wives and children in-
A CALL FOR BLACKROBES 7
structed, and to lose nothing of the instructions given, that they
brought them from home to live in tents around the church. The
men would not do less; those living the nearest came every day to
hear mass and passed the whole day at the church, returning home in
time to attend to their business and prevent the wasting of their
crops by their hired and slave Indians. 13
The marvelous work accomplished by these two zeal-
ous laborers is matter for another story. The pastors and
sheep were o such dispositions that the future beauty of
this spot in the Lord's vineyard could not but elicit
wonder.
CHAPTER II
Preliminary Reconnaissance rr
Fatker De Smet
CARRIED AWAY BY THE FASCINATING NARRATIVE OF
these pioneer priests in the Oregon Country, it has been
easy to overlook a second Catholic answer to the call
from the Far West that was soon to come. As early as
1833, the venerable bishops who had gathered in the
Second Provincial Council of Baltimore had foreseen the
day of the westward movement with all its consequent
evils and blessings. They desired that natives should have
spiritual care and should be befriended even if other
white men were dispossessing them. Hence did
. . . the Fathers judge that the welfare of the Indians, who are to be
settled, by the authority of the civil power, beyond the United States
and the above-mentioned Territories, and beyond the boundaries of
all dioceses heretofore erected, should be provided for by entrusting
their care to the Society of Jesus: wherefore they are led to petition
the Holy See that the Mission be committed to it. 1
The Jesuits had their commission. Henceforth, the West
was their chosen mission field.
The Potawatomis at Council Bluffs received the minis-
trations of De Smet and other Jesuits for several years
before the founding of the Rocky Mountain Mission.
One gathers the impression from early accounts of De
Smet's travels that Council Bluffs was considered more
or less as home, and this even after the mission had been
PRELIMINARY RECONNAISSANCE 9
closed. Council Bluffs was the last field of labor which
occupied the great De Smet before he set out for the
mountains. He had returned from among his Potawat-
omis and Sioux but a few short months when the long
years of patient entreaty by the Flathead Indians for a
missionary reached a happy fruition.
These Flatheads had fallen under the influence of two
Iroquois neophytes who had left their homeland on the
shores of the Great Lakes and, with twenty-two other
warriors,
. . . had settled in the country between the Rocky Mountains and the
Pacific Ocean. That country is inhabited by infidel nations, and
especially by those the French call Tetes Plates. They married there
and were incorporated into the Indian tribe. As they were well in-
structed in the Catholic religion, professed by the Iroquois con-
verted by the early Fathers of your Society they have continued to
practice it as much as it was in their power, and have taught it to
their wives and children. Their zeal goes even further: becoming
Apostles, they have sown the first seeds of Catholicity in the midst
of the infidel nations among whom they live. These precious seeds
begin already to bring forth fruit, for they have caused to spring in
the hearts of the Indians the desire of having Missionaries who would
teach them the divine law. 2
This encouraging sketch Bishop Rosati of St. Louis sent
to Father John Roothan, General of the Society of Jesus,
as an appeal for Jesuit missionaries. Long years of suffer-
ing and death on the part of the natives had finally been
rewarded.
The efforts of these sincere people to gain their heart's
desire is outlined in this same letter to Roothan:
Eight or nine years ago [c. 1831] some of the Flathead nation came
to St. Louis. The object of their journey was to ascertain if the
religion spoken of with so much praise by the twenty-four Iroquois
warriors was in reality such as was represented, and above all if the
1 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
nations that have white skin (the name they have given to the
Europeans) had adopted and practiced it. 3
These first messengers fell sick and died in St. Louis. Both
were baptized and given Christian burial.
Some years later [c. 1835] the Flathead tribe again sent one of the
Iroquois nation to St. Louis. There he came with two of his children,
who were instructed and baptized by the Fathers of the College. He
begged missionaries for his countrymen and departed with the hope
that one day the desire of this tribe would finally be fulfilled. . . . 4
Old Ignace hoped for the diligently sought and eagerly
awaited blackgowns, but none came. Again in 1837, the
old Indian headed a third delegation which was never to
reach St. Louis. Five more lives were to be added to the
first two messengers who had died in St. Louis. The
tribes represented in this delegation of 1837 are not
certain. There may have been Old Ignace, three Flat-
heads, and one Nez Perce or perhaps three Flatheads, one
Iroquois, and one Snake. 5 What is important:
The party reached Ash Hollow [Nebraska], where they were at-
tacked by about three hundred Sioux warriors, and, after fighting for
three hours, killed some fifteen of them, when the Sioux, by means of
a French trader then among them, obtained a parley with Gray and
his traveling companions. . . . While the Frenchman was in conver-
sation with Gray, the treacherous Sioux made a rush upon the three
Flatheads, one Snake and one Iroquois Indian belonging to the party,
and killed them. 6
The blood of this third delegation spilled on the sandy
wastes of the plains was soon to germinate the seed of
Christians,
The fourth expedition sent by the tribe (but only the
third to reach St. Louis) arrived in 1839. This time the
tribe sent
PRELIMINARY RECONNAISSANCE 11
. . . two Iroquois named Peter and Little Ignace (to distinguish him
from the other called Big Ignace) and commissioned them to make
still more persistent entreaties to obtain finally that o which they
had so great a need a blackrobe to lead them to heaven. 7
Of this fourth delegation Bishop Rosati writes:
. . . these savages, who speak French, have edified us by their truly
exemplary conduct and interested us by their conversations. The
Fathers of the College have heard their confessions and today they
approached the holy table at high mass in the Cathedral Church.
Afterwards I administered to them the sacrament of Confirmation
and in a sermon delivered after the ceremony I rejoiced with them
in their happiness and I gave them hope of having a priest soon.
They will depart tomorrow; one of them will carry the good news
promptly to the Flatheads; the other will spend the winter at the
mouth of Bear River, and in the spring he will continue his journey
with the missionary whom we will send them. 8
Unless something unforeseen occurred, the Flatheads
were to have their missionary "their blackrobe to lead
them to heaven."
Before signing his name Bishop Rosati adds one more
story about these unusual Indians for whom he pleaded
so earnestly and effectively:
Of the twenty-four Iroquois who formerly emigrated from Canada,
only four are still living. Not only have they planted the faith in
those wild countries, but they have besides defended it against the
encroachments of the Protestant ministers. When these pretended
missionaries presented themselves among them, our good Catholics
refused to accept them. "These are not the priests about whom we
have spoken to you," they would say to the Flatheads, "These are not
the long black-robed priests who have no wives, who say mass, who
carry the crucifix with them, etc." For the love of God, my very
Reverend Father, do not abandon these souls. 9
This impassioned prayer of the Bishop was to have its
answer.
12 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
This letter of the prelate was probably the result of a
suggestion in a letter of Father Peter Verhaegen, Jesuit
Superior in Missouri. After mentioning the consolation
occasioned by the visit of the two Iroquois from the
mountains he adds:
They have come from so great a distance to beg for aid, which I
cannot give with our slender personnel. This circumstance, Monsei-
gneur, might furnish you an occasion for addressing to our Very Rev.
Father General a letter recommending to him the nations who dwell
on the banks of the Columbia and who were formerly evangelized by
our Fathers, whose memory they preserve. 10
That Rosati acted on this suggestion we have seen.
Father Verhaegen, also, wrote a personal appeal to the
General. Among other things he said:
"What I had very often heard from others these good men corrobo-
rated, namely, that the Indians dwelling beyond the Rocky Moun-
tains are well affected towards our holy religion and could with little
trouble be brought within the bosom of the Church. Considering
the very great scarcity of priests among us I scarcely knew what to
answer. Finally, after weighing the matter carefully and asking the
opinion of the consultors, I promised them that next spring two
Fathers would undertake a journey to that distant region in order
to dwell for a space at least among those nations cultivated of old by
our Fathers and bring them the aid they so sorely need. ... I am
desirous therefore to know of your Paternity what he wishes done
by us on behalf of those poor creatures. 11
Whether or not the mission would be a permanent
Jesuit undertaking, Father Verhaegen left to the decision
of Father Roothan. That a priest would be sent to the
mountains, at least temporarily, he was determined.
Steps were taken toward the actual appointment of
missionaries to the Flatheads. There were several volun-
teers in the vice-province of Missouri itself, to say
nothing of the willing workers who would respond to
PRELIMINARY RECONNAISSANCE 13
the appeal made for missionaries in various European
Jesuit communities.
To perform the important task of reconnoitering the
new Mission of the Mountains, Peter John De Smet,
lately of the Potawatomi mission at Council Bluffs, was
selected. De Smet was a native of Termonde, Belgium.
He and his twin sister, Colette, were born January 30,
1801. "His childhood days were spent at home, where
he grew up in an atmosphere of staunch Catholicism." 12
He was educated in various schools in and near Ter-
monde and at the large boarding school in Biervelde,
which was conducted by the diocesan clergy of Ghent.
A year or two later De Smet entered the Junior Seminary
of St. Nicholas. A short time after this, we find him
enrolled in the college at Alost, in East Flanders. We
next met him in the Junior Seminary of Mechlin.
These academic wanderings corroborate the judgment
passed on De Smet by his brother: "He could not settle
down anywhere long." 13
At Mechlin he met Father Charles Nerinckx, who was
to influence the whole future life of the young Peter De
Smet. 14 De Smet succumbed to the vivid accounts of
missionary life with which Father Nerinckx regaled the
seminarians. He offered himself for the mission. To
cotfiplete the offering, De Smet would have to overcome
obstacles.
Since he had no money, and since he feared to ask his
father's permission to set out for America, the necessary
funds were borrowed. De Smet left without telling his
father. This act he would regret in later life, as it caused
a prolonged estrangement between his father and
himself. 15
14 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
To hasten the story, suffice it to say that he and his
eight companions reached Philadelphia safely on Sep-
tember 23, 1821. Six years later, on September 23,
1827, he had finished his studies and was ordained to the
priesthood* His first years as a priest were spent in a
school for Osage Indians. Upon the failure of this school,
he became a missionary at various times in Illinois, Iowa,
and Wisconsin. He became treasurer of St. Louis College
in 1832.
In September of the following year, he left St. Louis
to return to his native land. Poor health had been
plaguing him for some time, and the doctors had advised
his native air. As soon as he reached Paris, he began to
beg for his beloved mission in Missouri. His efforts were
well repaid in money and in practical gifts. All the
while his health had been declining, so much so that, at
his own request, he was released from his vows as a
Jesuit on March 31,1835.
For two long years, oppressed though he was by poor
health, the Abbe De Smet begged, preached, and labored
for his former brothers in Christ. He was their agent
in securing contributions and loans for the struggling
missions. Yet, for all this, he was not happy. A feeling
of frustration and of self-reproach haunted him. He
would never' be happy until he was working as a Jesuit
in the Missouri missions, where he felt God wanted him.
Thought became reality. By November 29, 1837, De
Smet was back at Florissant. He "was home again at
his true home with the Jesuits on the American fron-
tier." 10 Again he joyfully took up his work among the
Potawatomis at Council Bluffs. From this mission he was
called to take the Torch of Faith into the far western
PRELIMINARY RECONNAISSANCE 15
mountains. This was De Smet's real vocation, for he
had cherished the hope that he would be chosen mis-
sionary to the Flatheads ever since meeting the Indians at
Council Bluffs, while they were en route to St. Louis.
By coincidence, he left Council Bluffs for St. Louis,
February 13, 1840. He undertook the trip, however,
... on business for our house at Council Bluffs and to obtain things
necessary for life and clothing firmly resolving to return, as soon
as possible, to the dear Potawatomis. 17
De Smet's letter continues:
The winter was extremely severe, during this short trip I suffered
much, sleeping under the open heavens for two nights, in three feet
of snow, wrapped only in two single blankets. I had my nose and one
cheek frozen, as they had been exposed to a piercing northeast wind.
The cold and the dampness, I suppose, caused the heavy congestion
in the chest, which plagued me during my trip; then, upon arriving
at the University, Rev. Fr. Verhaegen put me in the hands of a
doctor (and I have always had a strong prejudice against the
disciples of Aesculapius) . 18
After recovering from this encounter with the blood-
letters, De Smet was ordered to make preparations for
his journey to the Rocky Mountains as soon as the
weather should permit.
I left St. Louis March 28, and arrived at Westport, April 11, in
time to fit out for the mountains. I have bought 4 horses and three
mules. The caravan, I presume, will leave on May 1 under the
command of Captain Dripps and Messrs. Frab and Ledger. 10
Here he was on the frontier of civilization, awaiting the
fur brigade that would take him to the long-neglected
tribes. This was a journey of exploration and recon-
naissance.
1 6 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
I was sent by the Very Reverend Bishop and by my provincial to
assure ourselves of the dispositions of these savages and of the probable
success which could be expected by establishing a mission in their
midst 20
Commanded by his superiors, and with the sincerest
blessing of his bishop, De Smet left Westport (now
Kansas City) on April 30, 1840. The annual brigade of
the American Fur Company followed the Oregon Trail
as far as the Green River rendezvous, in what is present
southwestern Wyoming. They crossed the boundless
plains, past Chimney Rock:
On May 3 1 we camped two miles and a half from one of the most
remarkable curiosities of this savage region. It is a cone-shaped
eminence of not far from a league in circumference, gashed by many
ravines and standing upon a smooth plain. From the summit of
this hill rises a square shaft, thirty to forty feet through and UO feet
high; the shape of this column has given it the name of the Chimney;
it is 175 yards above the plain, and may be seen from a distance of
thirty miles. The Chimney is composed of petrified clay, interspersed
with layers of white and grayish sandstone. 21
De Smet and his companions worked their way wearily
over the sandy wastes past the famous Independence
Rock about which the missionary writes:
... it is the first massive stone of this renowned chain of mountains
which divide North America, and which wayfarers call the backbone
of the universe. It is composed of granite , . . of a prodigious thick-
ness, and covers several miles of land; from crown to base it is
completely bare. It is the great register of the desert; the names of
all travelers who have passed one may read, written in rough charac-
ters; mine is among them in my capacity as the first priest to reach
this remote spot. 22
The travelers continued beyond the frowning Rockies,
through South Pass, to their appointed rendezvous at
Green River. 28 De Smet's letters are filled with descrip-
PRELIMINARY RECONNAISSANCE 17
tions of what he saw on this first stage of his journey.
Nothing escaped his notice. The scenery, plants, ani-
mals, and natives each in turn came before his keen
eye to suffer comparison with what he had seen among
the Potawatomis. 24
Once arrived at the rendezvous he set to work imme-
diately:
On June 30, 1 met the escort sent by the Flatheads to serve as my
guide and guard. Our meeting was that of children who came to
meet a father whose return had been long awaited. In the same place
there were gathered a crowd of Indians from all the tribes, come to
this common meeting place to trade the produce of their primitive
labor. 25
Here he met the Shoshones, or Snakes, who
. . . inhabit the southern part of the territory of Oregon, in the
vicinity of upper California. Their population of about 10,000 souls
is divided into several bands scattered here and there in the most
desolate country in all the region west of the mountains. 26
At the rendezvous they gave a parade to greet the whites that were
there. Three hundred of their warriors came up in good order and
at full gallop into the midst of our camp. They were hideously
painted, armed with their clubs, and covered all over with feathers,
pearls, wolves* tails, teeth and claws of animals, outlandish adorn-
ments, with which each one had decked himself out according to his
fancy. Those who had wounds received in war, and those who tad
killed the enemies of their tribe, displayed their scars ostentatiously
and waved the scalps they had taken on the ends of poles, after the
manner of standards. 27
What must have been the thoughts of De Smet as he
watched this display! From his writings one could never
guess. The description of the rendezvous is narrated as
though the recorder was completely disinterested in what
he saw. Yet he was on the eve of plunging into the
country infested by these savage natives. He stayed some
days at the rendezvous to rest his horses and
18 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
. . to give good and salutary admonition to the Canadian hunters
who seemed to be in great need of it and to talk with the natives of
the different tribes. 28
The day before proceeding on his journey with his
faithful Flatheads, De Smet celebrated Mass and
preached in French and English and to the Indians
through an interpreter:
On Sunday, the 5th of July, I had the consolation of celebrating the
holy sacrifice of mass sub dia [in the open air]. The altar was placed
on an elevation and surrounded with boughs and garlands of flowers;
I addressed the congregation in French and in English, and spoke also
by an interpreter to the Flatheads and Snake Indians. 20
It was a spectacle truly moving for the heart of a missionary to be-
hold an assembly composed of so many different tribes, and prostrat-
ing themselves with equal submission before the Sacred Host. The
nature of the congregation and the majesty of the desert concurred to
render the Mass solemn. The Canadians sang hymns in French and
Latin, and the Indians in their mother tongue; all distinctions, all
tribal strifes disappeared before an universal sentiment that of
Christian affection. Oh! truly it was a Catholic ceremony! This
place since has been called the Prairie of the Mass. 30
This meeting had been most consoling. The day fol-
lowing the memorable Mass, De Smet took the trail
again. This time he was going to the Flatheads to those
for whom he had left St. Louis. The Flathead warriors
and ten Canadians, who wished to accompany De Smet
so they could practice their religion, took a northwest-
erly direction. They traveled up the Green River for
three days, then along the mountain trail into Jackson
Hole, through narrow defiles and along sheer cliffs until
they reached the main fork of the Snake River on July
10:
The mass of snow melted during the July heat had swollen this
torrent to a prodigious height. Its roaring waters rushed furiously
PRELIMINARY RECONNAISSANCE 19
down and whitened with their foam the great blocks of granite
which vainly disputed the passage with them. 31
The natives and Canadians swam the raging stream. For
the strange missionary they made a skin boat which three
Indians pushed ahead as they swam the river. The next
day they climbed a high mountain pass and traversed a
thick pine forest. Then down into Pierre's Hole. 32 After
a day's journey across this valley, they reached the camp
of the Flatheads and Pend d'Oreilles. The goal had been
attained:
The poles were already up for my lodge, and at my approach men,
women and children came all together to meet me and shake hands
and bid me welcome; the number of them was about 1600. The
elders wept with joy, while the young men expressed their satisfac-
tion by leaps and shouts of happiness. 83
After his formal reception by the chief, Big Face, the
missionary spoke to all on religious matters. He ex-
plained the advantages of his mission and tried to impress
the need of settling permanently in some suitable place.
The plan of instruction which he intended to follow was
outlined. Finally this first day ended with evening pray-
ers and hymns.
There followed days of feverish activity:
At daybreak, each morning, the old chief was the first to rise;
then, astride his horse, he made the rounds of the camp to harangue
his people. . . . "Come," he would cry, "courage, my children, open
your eyes. Turn your first thoughts and your first words to the
Great Spirit. Tell him that you love him and ask his mercy on you.
Courage, for the sun is about to appear, it is time for you to go to the
river to wash. Be at our Father's lodge at the first sound of the bell;
while there be quiet; open your ears to hear and your heart to retain
all the words that he will speak to you." 34
20 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
As soon as all were ready, De Smet would ring the
bell for morning prayers. During the days he was in
their midst, their fervor never slackened. All eagerly
attended the prayers; even the sick had themselves car-
ried to the priest's lodge. Four times daily, gatherings
for prayer and instruction were called. Avidly they
listened to the explanations of the Pater, the Ave, the
Credo, the Acts of Faith, Hope, Charity, and Contri-
tion, the Ten Commandments of God. The day after
his arrival, De Smet translated these essential prayers into
the language of the Flatheads. Here, as in other instances,
he was helped by trusty interpreters. That he was very
successful may be surmised from the fact that the whole
tribe knew these prayers within ten days.
Before he had finished, Father De Smet had baptized
six hundred of the natives, including the two head chiefs
of the Flatheads and Pend d'Oreilles both octogena-
rians:
... all ardently desired the same grace, and doubtless their dispositions
were excellent; but since the absence of missionaries would be for a
short time only, I thought it prudent to delay them until the follow-
ing year, that they might conceive a noble idea of the dignity of the
sacrament, and that they might prove in what esteem they hold the
indissolubility of the marriage bond, a thing unknown among the
Indian tribes of America, for they separate often on account of the
most frivolous reasons. 85
Besides the instructions, De Smet was naturally study-
ing the tribe from all possible aspects that he might give a
true and trustworthy report on his return to St. Louis,
The one fault he could find in them was their gambling*
In a race or a "stick game" the Indians would stake
everything they possessed. Even this inveterate habit
was unanimously abolished once its opposition to Chris-
PRELIMINARY RECONNAISSANCE 2 1
If De Smet had found one thing to blame, he found
many things to praise:
They are scrupulously honest in their buying and selling; they have
never been accused of having committed a theft; everything that is
found is taken to the lodge of the chief, who cries the articles and
returns them to the owner. Slander is unknown even among the
women: lying is hateful to them beyond anything else. . . . Quarrels
and fits of rage are severely punished. No one suffers without his
brothers interesting themselves in his trouble and coming to his
succor; accordingly, they have no orphans among them. They are
polite, always of a jovial humor, very hospitable and helpful to one
another in their duties. 36
These are by no means all the virtues of these natives
listed by De Smet. There are enough here, however, to
let us see the impression made on the missioner by this
unusual tribe. The report which would be carried back
to the East is not hard to foretell.
From Pierre's Hole De Smet accompanied the camp as
it moved northwest by easy stages. On July 22, they
encamped at Henrys Lake and Red Rock Lake. The
former was a source of the Snake River; the latter, the
ultimate source of the Missouri, In an attempt to reach
the summit of a near-by peak, he climbed for six hours,
but in the end, he found himself exhausted and com-
pelled to give up his plan. While he rested, the intrepid
missionary let his thoughts go untrammeled:
The fathers of the company who are in the missionary service on the
banks of the Mississippi and its tributaries, from Council Bluffs to
the Gulf of Mexico, came to my mind. I wept with joy at the happy
memories that were aroused in my heart. I thanked the Lord that
he had deigned to favor the labor of his servants, scattered over this
vast vineyard, imploring at the same time his divine grace for all the
nations of Oregon, and in particular for the Flatheads and Pend
d'Oreilles. who had so recentlv and so heartily ranged themselves
22 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
under the banner of Jesus Christ. I engraved upon a soft stone this
inscription in large letters: Sanctus Ignatius Patromm Montium. Die
Julii 23, 1840. I said a mass of thanksgiving at the foot of this
mountain, surrounded by my savages, who intoned chants to the
praise of God, and installed myself in the land in the name of our
holy founder. Let us implore his aid, that through his intercession
in heaven, this immense desert, which offers such great hopes, may
speedily be filled with worthy and unwearying laborers. 37
A loyal son of Ignatius had placed a promising corner
of the vineyard under the fatherly protection of the
soldier-saint. Here De Smet would fight many battles,
but never unassisted.
The next day the camp moved on into present
Montana:
Until the 8th of August, we were still traveling through a great
variety of country. Now we would find ourselves in open, smiling
valleys, now in sterile lands beyond lofty mountains and narrow
defiles, sometimes in extensive high plains, profusely covered with
blocks and fragments of granite. 88
After following the Beaverhead River through the
present Dillon, Montana, they reached, by August 10,
the Jefferson River. Leaving this camp, the band arrived
at the three forks of the Missouri on August 21. Here,
in the land of plenty, the Flatheads prepared to lay in
their winter food supply. The men fished and hunted,
while the women prepared each day's kill De Smet
stayed with them until August 27, the day he had set
for his departure.
The appointed day dawned. The seventeen braves and
three chiefs, selected to guard De Smet through the
country of the hostile Blackf oot and Crow Indians, were
ready:
Long before sunrise all the nation was assembled around my lodge; no
one spoke, but grief was painted on each face. The only thing I
PRELIMINARY RECONNAISSANCE 23
could say that seemed to console them was a formal promise of a
prompt return in the following spring, and of a reinforcement of
several missionaries. I performed the morning prayers amid the
weeping and sobs of those good savages. They drew from me despite
myself the tears that I would gladly have stifled for the moment. 39
De Smet appointed as spiritual head of the tribe a very
intelligent Indian. This man had been specially in-
structed and was to call the others together for the
morning and evening prayers. On Sundays, he was to
exhort the others and privately to baptize the dying,
and the children in case of necessity. Old Big Face
promised De Smet:
When the snows disappear from the valleys, after the winter, when
the grass begins to be green again, our hearts, so sad at present, will
begin to rejoice. As the grass grows higher, our joy will become
greater; but when the flowers appear, we will set out to come and
meet you. Farewell. 40
The little band struck out on their perilous journey.
For two days their trail led up the Gallatin River and
then across to the Yellowstone. For several days they
traveled along the Yellowstone bottoms through the
country of the Crow Indians to the confluence of the
Big Horn River. Well into eastern Montana they fol-
lowed the Yellowstone; then they turned east and south-
east to cut across South Dakota to Fort Vermillion on
the Missouri River. From here they went by boat to
Council Bluffs, three hundred miles farther on. The
next stop was at Westport, whence they proceeded by
stagecoach to Independence, Missouri. On December
31, 1840, De Smet was safe among his colleagues in St.
Louis. Out of the jaws of peril and death he had returned
to report his readiness "to go back to that untended
vineyard of the Lord." 41
24 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Nine months had been spent by De Smet in his tour of
inspection. The reports he brought back were enthusi-
astic. There was no doubt in his mind that a mission
should be established in the mountains, nor was there the
shadow of anxiety as to its possible success:
On my arrival at St. Louis, I gave an account to my superior of my
journey and of the flattering prospects which the mission beyond the
Rocky Mountains held out. 42
The field was ripe for the harvest and at least one
harvester was certainly ready to garner the souls. But
there was not enough money for the outfit required by
the missionaries. The heart of the resolute priest was
crushed by the thought that his promise to the Flatheads
would have to go unredeemed and these souls be aban-
doned to paganism:
I would have desponded had I not already experienced the visible pro-
tection of the Almighty in the prosecution of this great work. My
confidence in him was unabated. 48
If the means were not at hand, De Smet would do
what he could to collect the needed money. He appealed
to Francis Patrick Kenrick, Bishop of Philadelphia, With
the latter's permission, a public appeal was made and a
collection taken in the churches of the diocese:
... to the generous people of Philadelphia, who so liberally responded
to the call of their pastors, I return my sincere thanks and will daily
beg the father of mercies to reward them with his choicest blessings. 44
De Smet's appeal to Bishop Blanc of New Orleans was
equally successful. He left New Orleans with $1,100 in
cash and six boxes of various useful articles. From Pitts-
PRELIMINARY RECONNAISSANCE 25
burgh and from Kentucky came generous donations.
The balance was supplied by St. Louis. At last, the
needed men and money were ready to redeem the promise
there would be a Mission of the Mountains.
CHAPTER III
Tne Founding or St. Mar^ s Mission
amond tne Flatneads
SOON AFTER DE SMET HAD RETURNED FROM HIS FIRST
trip to the Flatheads, Father Peter Verhaegen had chosen
Fathers Nicholas Point and Gregory Mengarini to be co-
founders with Father De Smet of the Flathead mission.
This appointment, on March 4, 1841, had preceded the
doubtful weeks spent in begging the needed money.
Once this last obstacle had been passed, preparations
were made for immediate departure.
On April 24, Fathers De Smet and Mengarini, and
Eysvogels (the last-named destined for Council Bluffs)
and Coadjutor Brothers Huet and Specht left St. Louis.
Seven days later they reached Westport, where they
were joined by Father Point and Brother William Clacs-
sens. On May 10, the party set out over the Oregon
Trail, on their way at last to found the mission of their
desires. Five days out on the trail, De Smet gave words
to the feelings of the little band, when he wrote:
Aided by the grace of God, supported by the Holy Sacrifices of our
Fathers and the good prayers of all our brethren, we shall brave every
obstacle to fly to the conquest of souls. 1
Who were these men "flying to the conquest of souls"?
Father Nicholas Point was born in Rocroy in the
Ardennes, France. At this time he was forty-two.
Father Gregory Mengarini, twenty-nine, an Italian, had
26
THE FOUNDING OF ST. MARY'S MISSION 27
responded to the appeal for missionaries which had been
read in the various Jesuit communities in Rome. He was
. . . specially selected by the Father General himself for this mission
on account of his age, his virtues, his great facility for languages and
his knowledge of medicine and music; and the three lay-brothers,
two Belgians, William Claessens and Charles Huet, and one German,
Joseph Specht, of whom the first is a blacksmith, the second a car-
penter, and the third a tinner, or a sort of factotum. 2
These were the men that were the foundation stones of
what has become a century-old apostolic edifice.
The little band with their pilot, Thomas Fitzpatrick,
famous scout and former partner of the Rocky Moun-
tain Fur Company, and five teamsters joined up with
the party of John Bidwell who was to become famous in
pioneer California. 3 In the combined group there were
seventy souls. They chose Fitzpatrick as guide for the
whole caravan.
The duties of the guide were very important: thus, the Captain at
early dawn gave the signal for rising and for departure, and once upon
the road he regulated the march and halting times; he also chose the
ground for camp and looked to the keeping of discipline. 4
If one hoped to cross the great deserts and high moun-
tains, to traverse the land of countless hostile Indians,
care had to be taken. The missionary caravan was no
exception:
For greater security each owner of the animals tied them to stakes
planted in the ground at suitable intervals; the tethers used were long
enough to permit of the animals grazing with ease. From the first
moment that sleep reigned over the camp until the following day-
break each traveler in turn, even down to the priests, kept watch to
guard from any surprise of the enemy. 5
28 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
On they rolled without mishap. Once the party barely
avoided a pitched battle with a band of Cheyennes be-
cause one member o the caravan had been hasty in
trying to fight the Indians after they had taken his horse
and gun. Fitzpatrick saved what could have been the
end of all dreams and hopes. River fordings were always
anxious. About the crossing of the Platte River, Father
Point says:
... we had to use great precautions, particularly with the oxen,
which are much harder to manage than horses, whilst the first driver
goaded them on from his high seat, his subordinates on horseback at
either side, or on foot in the middle of the stream, shouted and
whipped them to make the team advance, and to prevent them from
turning aside. For greater safety, cords were stretched from the tops
of the wagons, and being drawn taut by vigorous arms, they helped
to keep things well balanced. The roaring of the waters, the bellow-
ing of the oxen, the neighing of the horses, the excited and ear-
splitting shouts of the drivers all combined to make up the most
horrid din that I ever listened to; it was astonishing that we effected
the passage almost without any mishap.
Day after day they toiled ahead, and on August 15
they reached Fort Hall in southern Idaho. Here De Smet
was to leave the caravan and journey with the vanguard
of the Flatheads whom he had met the preceding day. He
learned that the main camp of the Flatheads had awaited
his arrival from July 1 to July 16, but, because of a
shortage of provisions, had been forced to withdraw into
the mountains. The three natives were left to wait his
arrival as long as there was the least hope of his coming.
From these men and from Gabriel Prudhomme, who
had ridden ahead of ail the others to meet De Smet on
the banks of Green River, the zealous priest learned the
year's happenings among the tribe:
THE FOUNDING OF ST. MARY'S MISSION 29
They had prayed daily to obtain for me a happy journey and a
speedy return. Their brethren continued in the same good disposi-
tion; almost all, even children and old men, knew by heart the
prayers which I had taught them the preceding year. 7
He learned further that
. . . the whole tribe had determined to fix upon some spot as a site for
a permanent village; that, with this in view, they had already chosen
two places which they believed to be suitable; that nothing but our
presence was required to confirm their determination. . . . 8
Well might De Smet feel happy as he set out to join
the main body of the tribe. The little band traveled
north from Fort Hall until they reached the Beaver-
head River in southwestern Montana. Here they met the
rest of the tribe, who greeted De Smet warmly. The
combined group now moved over the Rockies and fol-
lowed the course of Deer Lodge Creek and Hell Gate
River. This latter they named St. Ignatius. They passed
the present site of Missoula, Montana, and went some
twenty-eight miles up the Bitter Root Valley. Their
journey ended September 24, 1841, the feast of Our Lady
of Mercy. Here would be established the first mission.
On the first Sunday in October [October 3], the feast of the Holy
Rosary, we took possession of the promised land by erecting a large
cross on the spot chosen for the first reduction, an event which I am
assured was foretold by a little girl 12 years old, who was baptized
and died during my absence. 9
The beautiful death of this little Indian maiden was
described by Father De Smet in another letter. When
this girl realized she was dying, she begged so persistently
for baptism that Peter, the Iroquois, administered the
sacrament and gave her the name of Mary. Afterwards,
3 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
... she spoke three times in testimony of her happiness: "Pray for me!
pray for me! pray for me!" Then she began to pray herself, and
then she sang a hymn in a stronger voice than any of those gathered
around. On the point of breathing her last, she cried out, "Oh, how
beautiful! I see Mary, my mother. My happiness is not on this
earth; only in heaven must I seek it. Listen to the Blackrobes because
they will speak the truth!" And immediately after she breathed her
last. 10
After the cross had been erected, many of the Indians
remembered that the site of the first mission was the
spot whence Mary had departed to join her beautiful
Mother in heaven. For this reason there was a special
sacredness about their first house of prayer.
The missionaries, priests, and brothers soon set to work
to build a log cabin and church, and around these they
built a sort of fort protected by bastions. The ground
was already frozen and the trench for the foundations
had to be cut with axes. Trees had to be felled, trimmed,
and hauled to the spot destined for the building:
The walls of the buildings were of logs interlacing one another,
the cracks being filled with clay. The partitions between rooms were
of deer-skin. The roof was of saplings covered with straw and
earth. The windows were 2x1, and deerskin with the hair scraped
off supplied the place of glass. 11
To reach this home the brave Religious had traveled for
four and a half months.
The translation of the prayers into Flathead was be-
gun immediately. This became no easy task since experi-
ence taught the missionaries that many words in Hat-
head had a far different connotation than their literal
English or French equivalents. In the early months of
the mission, confessions were heard through an interpret-
er. This was not so strange for the Indians, since they
THE FOUNDING OF ST. MARY'S MISSION 3 1
were accustomed to a form of public confession that had
been in vogue before the coming of the priests.
There was a regular order of the day set down for
those living at the mission. Daybreak was rising time;
there followed morning prayers, Mass, and breakfast.
Then came an hour's instruction, followed by work until
noon; catechism from two to half past three in the
afternoon, work until sunset, prayers, instruction, canti-
cles, etc. This order reads more like that of novices in
a religious house than of savages roaming the mountain
fastness. Yet from the early accounts one learns that
the tribe followed it without serious complaint.
For the Jesuits the days were filled with the study of
the language and the teaching of catechism. The method
ordinarily followed in teaching was to reduce the cate-
chism to question and answer form. These were com-
mitted to memory by the neophytes and on appointed
days "catechism bees" were held in the church, one con-
testant asking the questions of another. Failure to
answer naturally disqualified one from sharing the
prizes. These contests were limited to children under
thirteen, for in the children lay the future greatness of
the mission.
After Catechism on Sundays and holy days came sports. The peo-
ple collected together, and the Indian boys brought their bows and
arrows. Standing in their midst I [Father Mengarini] would throw
up in the air, sometimes a ball of cotton, sometimes a thin stick; and
the boys would shoot at it. To win a prize, the ball or stick had to
be pierced in its ascent; but no matter how swiftly I threw, the
arrows guided by unerring hands, flew swifter, and the ball would
be seen in mid air, pierced, as if by magic, by a dozen arrows. 12
This glimpse gives us an insight of the missionaries*
method of approach. They mixed the difficult with the
pleasant. For children it was play.
3 2 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
For the adults, the Fathers made every effort to help
them become prosperous and successful farmers. It was
futile to hope to keep the Indians happy in one spot if
they could not find a reasonably easy living in that place.
For this reason, then, Father De Smet made the tiresome
journey to Fort Colville and back almost as soon as they
had reached St. Mary's. He set out on October 28 for
the nearest Hudson's Bay post. In spite of the lateness
of the season, he was determined to make the trip for
two reasons; first, they needed provisions for the winter,
seeds for the spring planting, tools for the savages who
were well disposed toward work, and cows and other
cattle for their future farms; second, he wanted to visit
the Kalispel and Pend d'Oreille tribes who usually
camped in this region during the winter. He was to be
successful on both scores :
After dinner next day [November 14], we went on to the fort
[Colville]. There we passed three days in repairing our saddles and
packing our provisions and seeds. Vherever one finds the gentlemen
of the Hudson Bay Company, one is sure of a good reception. They
do not stop with demonstrations of politeness and affability, they
anticipate your wishes in order to be of service to you. 18
This friendly feeling between the missionaries and the
Hudson's Bay men was one of those pleasant phases in an
otherwise rugged life.
Besides buying provisions, De Smet had been doing
other work:
During my journey, which lasted forty-two days, I baptized 190
persons, of whom twenty-six were adults, sick or in extreme old age;
I preached to more than 2,000 Indians; who, thus evidently con~
ducted into my way by providence, will not, I trust, tarry long in
ranging themselves tinder the banner of Jesus Christ. 14
THE FOUNDING OF ST. MARY'S MISSION 3 3
De Smet visited the Kalispels on his way to and from
Colville. His success had been even greater than we may
judge from his own summary, for the Kalispels were
glad to join the Flatheads in the buffalo hunt of that
winter simply to be near Father Point who traveled with
the hunters.
The tireless De Smet reached St. Mary's on December
8. While he was away, the Fathers and Brothers had been
busy. Hence he could summarize the year's work:
On Christmas day I added 150 new baptisms to those of the 3d of
December [60 persons], and thirty-two rehabilitations of marriages;
so that the Flatheads, some sooner and others later, but all, with very
few exceptions, had, in the space of three months, complied with
everything necessary to merit the glorious title of true children of
God, 15
The report needs no comment. The missionaries had
come far, but certainly not in vain.
The farming efforts were not to meet with such im-
mediate success. In fact, the winter journey of 1841 was
almost futile; if we judge from Father Mengarini's
words, De Smet
. . . brought from Fort Colville, during the first year of our sojourn
among the Indians, seeds of various kinds from which we hoped to
reap a plentiful harvest. Our hopes, however, were not realized.
Chickens, hogs and cows were also brought, but only the last proved
to be a profitable investment. 16
These first years at St. Mary's were to be the most
satisfying. Perhaps it was because it was the first ma-
terialization of a dream and had about it the warmth and
zest of every new undertaking. There were to be
troubles, and finally this first seed was to die die while
its offspring went on living, increasing and multiplying.
But St. Mary's always remains the first.
34 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
For the moment we take up the story of events that
were to have much wider consequences.
This year at Fort Colville, being able to procure neither the pro-
visions, nor the implements, nor the clothing necessary for the needs
of our mission, I took the trail for Fort Vancouver, the great em-
porium of the honorable Hudson Bay Company. It is about a
thousand miles from our settlement. 17
How carelessly De Smet makes reference to this journey.
"It is about a thousand miles." He was to see and do
much before he returned.
He visited the Kootenai Indians, instructing many and
baptizing a few. The Kalispels again received him joy-
fully. He spoke to them of creation, of God's goodness,
of His mercy and forgiveness. Among the Coeur
d'Alenes he was greatly consoled and deeply impressed.
He instructed them and prayed, as was his habit. So
absorbed had they become that they begged to have
someone teach them their prayers while the priest was
absent. To enable himself to go, and yet remain, De
Smet had recourse to a very ingenious method:
After a long instruction on the most important truths of religion,
I collected around me all the little children, with the young boys and
girls; I chose two from among the latter, to whom I taught the Hail
Mary, assigning to each one his own particular part; then seven for
the Our Father; ten others for the Commandments, and twelve for
the Apostles' Creed; This method, which was my first trial of it,
succeeded admirably. I repeated to each one his part until he knew it
perfectly; I then made him repeat it five or six times. These little
Indians, forming a triangle, resembled a choir of angels, and recited
their prayers, to the great astonishment and satisfaction of the
savages. They continued in this manner morning and night, until
one of the chiefs learned all the prayers, which he then repeated in
public. 18
THE FOUNDING OF ST. MARY'S MISSION 3 5
This short visit by the great mission organizer was the
seed of the second establishment in the mountains, as
we will see. Before he left for Fort Colville, De Smet
baptized the small children and the very old people.
He arrived at Fort Colville in the beginning of May.
The spring freshets had so softened the ground that to
reach Fort Vancouver overland was out of the question.
The Hudson's Bay Company's heavy canoes for the river
trip would not be finished until May 30. So the enforced
delay was spent working among the Kettle Falls Indians
who lived near the fort and in whose midst St. Paul's
Mission was erected a few years later. These Indians
. . . were all very attentive in attending my instructions, and the old
as well as the young tried assiduously to learn their prayers. I
baptized all the younger children who had not received the sacrament
before, for M[onseigneur] Demers had already made two excursions
amongst them, with the most gratifying success. 19
The valiant soul-seeker crossed over the Columbia to
visit the Okinagans in present north-central "Washing-
ton. By these people he was received with the "greatest
cordiality and joy." Describing his labors De Smet re-
marks: "Many sick were presented to me for baptism, of
which rite they already knew the importance." 20 As
usual, he instructed and exhorted anyone he found as
anxious to hear the word of God as the Coeur d'Alenes
had been. Before turning back to Fort Colville, he
baptized 106 children and some of the old people. This
short journey gave De Smet an excellent idea of the
dispositions of these different tribes, and his work among
them sets him down as the precursor of the various Jesuit
missions which one day would be established for each of
these nations.
3 6 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
On May 30, Father De Smet embarked for Fort Van-
couver. The second day on the river the barge on which
he had been riding and all the crew except two were lost
is one of the Columbia's treacherous whirlpools. Shortly
before the tragedy occurred De Smet had asked to be put
ashore; so at the time he was walking along the bank.
The remainder of the journey was without incident.
They stopped at Fort Okanogan and again at Fort Walla
Walla, where De Smet baptized some more children.
He arrived at Fort Vancouver on June 8. Here he met
Fathers Francis Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers.
De Smet sang High Mass at the mission on the Cowlitz.
They then met at Fort Vancouver
... to deliberate on the interests of the great mission of the Pacific
coast ... all things being considered, the resolve was that the New
Caledonia mission should be attended before all, and that Father
De Smet should start for St. Louis and Belgium to bring temporal and
personal efficient means. 21
On June 30, De Smet and Demers started up the
Columbia on the returning barges. They parted at Fort
Walla Walla on July 1 1, Demers staying with the brigade
of the North, De Smet setting out overland for St.
Mary's. En route he passed the country of the Spokanes
and Coeur d'Alenes, finally reaching St. Mary's on July
27. He pushed on immediately to join the main camp of
the Flatheads who had left St. Mary's to search for pro-
visions. By August 2 he was with them again, only to
leave on August 1J for St. Louis and Europe in the
interests of the mission. Little wonder that Father Men-
garini should say, "Fr, De Smet sometimes with us but
oftener away from us, visiting some distant tribe or
transacting our business at the forts." 22
THE FOUNDING OF ST. MARY'S MISSION 37
The trip to St. Louis need not detain us. Father De
Smet visited the Crow Indians while en route. He had
been with this tribe in 1840, when returning from his
first trip to the mountains. That time De Smet was
received with demonstrations of friendship and had
taken occasion to instruct the Crows in the essential
points of religion. During the second visit he relates:
I promised that a Blackgown should visit them, but on condition that
the chiefs would engage themselves to put a stop to the thievish
practices so common amongst them, and to oppose vigorously the
corrupt morals of their tribe. 23
Actually this promise was not fulfilled until many years
later when the Jesuits began the serious evangelization of
this quite degenerate and discouraging tribe.
De Smet continued down the Missouri by light canoe.
There were the usual narrow escapes, but by now these
were expected. He said Mass at St. Mary's in St. Louis
on October 30. He was safely home.
CHAPTER IV
Barl-g Jesuit Missions Legend tne
Rockies
SACRED HEART MISSION AMONG THE COEUR D^ALENES
WHILE FATHER MENGARINI AND TWO BROTHERS WERE
left at St. Mary's in the Bitter Root, Father Point was
directed by Father De Smet to leave the Flathead buffalo
hunt and open the mission among the Coeur d'Alenes,
He traveled
... in the company of three chiefs and some others of that tribe.
Having reached the plain which is called Hell Gate, he sent off some
messengers to the distance of one day's journey from there in order to
obtain domestic animals for the new mission. 1
This accomplished, the little party pushed on:
After much stumbling of our horses, and upsetting of the baggage,
and after many a grave accident had been avoided by the protection
of Heaven, the little company at length reached the land of the
Coeur d'Alene, on Friday, November the 4th. Since the first Friday
of each month is set apart in a special manner to honor the Sacred
Heart, and since the mission we had come to found had been already
placed under Its powerful protection, it scarcely need be said, that
our first duty on dismounting was to kneel down along with all those
who had come to meet us, in order to renew this consecration. 2
So was born the mission of the Sacred Heart among the
Coeur d'Alenes. It was the second of the pioneer estab-
lishments in the Mission of the Mountains,
38
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES 35>
Father De Smet had been favorably enough impressed
by the people to promise them a missionary, when mis-
sionaries were very scarce. Perhaps he grasped more fully
the possibilities of these primitive people, for certainly
Father Point was not particularly impressed by any su-
perabundant goodness displayed by his new charges.
Point found them, in general, a most repulsive lot, living
in squalor and filth. He described them as having
. . . squalid faces, unkempt hair, hands doing duty for comb, hand-
kerchief j knife, fork and spoon; in feeding, repulsive sounds were
emitted from the mouth, nose and windpipe. This external misery
feebled [feebly] imaged forth the pitiable state of their souls. For at
this date there still reigned amongst the benighted people idolatry
so debasing that they paid divine honors even to the vilest animals,
a moral abandonment which knew no check save caprice, a passion
for gambling so absorbing that it trenched even upon their time for
sleep, unmitigated sloth which nothing but the pangs of hunger could
make them shake off, and finally an habitual inclination to cheating,
gluttony and every mean vice: these are a portion of the spiritual
miseries in which the Coeur d'Alenes had been immersed until our
coming. 3
This was hardly an encouraging field for labor. Noth-
ing daunted, Father Point set about the actual work of
founding the mission. If any permanent good was to be
accomplished, he needs must gather them into one spot,
since they were scattered in twenty-seven localities. Even
to collect them into one community in spite of the
opposition of medicine men would be a real task. Father
Point spent the first winter with the tribe at their fishing
camp at the head of the Spokane River, where the city
of Coeur d'Alene stands today. Meanwhile Brother
Huet, with some whites and Indians, was erecting the
buildings at the first site on the St. Joe River. The next
spring the church was built at the new mission. 4 The
40 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
work did not go on smoothly, for there were terrible
habits and traditions to be wiped out. But the mission
did progress.
The work accomplished in the beginning may be best
set down by the one who directed it:
From the first day of meeting till the hour of dispersion, this is a
summary of what was done: the church was finished, the seed was
sown, each one planting his little field, while there was a public field
for the whole people. Religious exercises were as follows: the Angelus,
the Benedicite, thanksgiving, four or five canticles, examen of
conscience, the whole of the little catechism, and all this in addition
to the ordinary prayers which were learned by heart by a great many,
and everyone's confession in preparation for the communion which
took place only at the end of the harvest. 5
Under this order of things the tribe should have im-
proved. It did and to an incredible degree. Religion
and morals swept upwards.
So rapidly did grace dominate their lives that Father
Point could say by the end of 1844 that, over a period of
four or five months,
. . . there had not been committed to my knowledge in the village of
the Sacred Heart a single fault that could be styled grave, and
although there may have been trifling shortcomings, the greater part
of them have been so well repaired, that the public good has scarcely
been less advanced than if these things had not been committed. . * .
Of all those who presented themselves for their first Communion
there was not one who was held unworthy of being admitted to it.
The majority of them might have been proposed as models to more
than one fervent Christian of civilization. What simplicity! What
charity! But above all, what faith in these poor children of the
forest I 6
From this buoyant account one might think that the
conversion of the Coeur d'Alenes was a simple matter of
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES 41
a few weeks. Actually, it was not so easy, but was a
gradual process spanning a number of years. Still they
did come a long way in a comparatively short time.
Thus far Father Point had been carrying the whole
burden of the labor of this particularly difficult mission.
He was soon to have help. When Father De Smet reached
St. Louis in October, 1842, he immediately set out on
one of his begging tours through the eastern cities. By
the spring of 1843, he had collected sufficient money to
dispatch the second band of recruits. These included
Father Peter De Vos, former novice master at Florissant,
Missouri; Father Adrian Hoecken, destined to play a he-
roic role in these early years; and Brother Peter McGean,
whose name almost became a tradition in the building
up of the struggling mission. Father De Smet accompa-
nied the band as far as Westport before turning back to
St. Louis to prepare for his voyage to Europe in search of
men and money. The three recruits traveled over the
Oregon Trail as part of the famous "Immigration of
1843." They arrived safely at St. Mary's in the autumn
of that year.
While De Vos and his companions were toiling over
the Oregon Trail, Father De Smet had set sail for
Europe, June 7, 1843. Arrived there, he begged money
and appealed for volunteers. Four of those who had
responded to a previous appeal, sent out by Father Gen-
eral John Roothan, were sent to America immediately:
Fathers Joseph Joset, a Swiss; Peter Zerbinatti, a Neo-
politan; Tiberius Soderini, a Roman; and Brother Vin-
cent Magri, a native of Malta. On March 20, 1 843, they
left Le Havre and arrived in St. Louis on May 1 8 after
a seven-day trip up the Mississippi from New Orleans.
As it was too late to prepare for the journey across the
42 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
plains that year, they waited in St. Louis. On April 23
of the following year they left for their mountain homes.
They reached St. Mary's on October 7, after a perilous
journey. They had hoped to meet De Smet at Green
River in Wyoming. De Smet's failure to keep the ren-
dezvous, since he was at the time just arriving in lower
Oregon with more missionaries, made it necessary for
Father Zerbinatti and the others to attempt to reach
Fort Hall without a guide. Fortunately they met Young
Ignace, the faithful Flathead. When the party reached
Fort Hall and still Father De Smet had not appeared,
they were again forced to go on without a guide. This
time they turned north with real trepidation, for they
were going into the land of the Blackfeet, the deadly
enemies of the Flatheads. Thanks to God's help they
completed the harrowing journey, thus bringing three
more permanent workers to the mission only three,
since Father Soderini did not remain on the mission, but
returned East the next year.
A few weeks before Father Joset and his companions
reached St. Mary's, Father De Smet had arrived in lower
Oregon with five more Jesuit missionaries. This group
had left Antwerp on January 9, 1844. Seven months
later, they arrived at Fort Vancouver. Fathers John
Nobili, who was to found Santa Clara University some
years later; Michael Accolti, the pillar of the California
mission; Anthony Ravalli, famous missionary doctor;
Louis Vercruysse, and Brother Francis Huysbrecht made
up this unusual group. The arrival of these men ended,
for two years, the stream of new recruits which had been
pouring into the mission. With most of the men now
present who were to have a part in the history of the
mission, the narrative may again be resumed.
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES 43
Father De Vos had arrived at St. Mary's in the autumn
of 1 843. There he met Father Point who had come from
Sacred Heart to get provisions and to consult Father De
Smet, whom he was expecting, about some difficulty with
the tribe which he had encountered. Father De Vos left
Father Point at St. Mary's and, taking Father Mengarini,
set out immediately to visit the mission in question.
Upon his return, he sent Father Hoecken as superior.
Father Hoecken remained at his post from November,
1843, till September, 1844. This period was most un-
pleasant, as we learn from Father Joset. The trouble
began over a sack of potatoes purchased from the In-
dians. The seller tried to give the Father half measure
and for his pains was bluntly told by the priest, "You
keep the shirt (that was paid beforehand) and the po-
tatoes, too." 7 The old chief who had made the bargain
was very vexed by his detection and summary dismissal.
Another incident was added. "Parents had agreed that
their children, then babies, would marry when of age/' 8
It happened that a girl refused to carry out one of these
childhood betrothals. Father Hoecken naturally stood
for the liberty of marriage. When the girl finally chose
to marry the brother-in-law of an extremely unpopular
interpreter who had provoked the Indians countless
times, the pot began to boil over. It was rumored that
the natives intended to whip the priest. As a matter of
fact, they would probably have whipped the interpreter
rather than the Father; but such was the rumor. The
Indians, however, were soon brought to their senses by
the threatened suspension of the mission. Obviously
Father Hoecken could accomplish nothing under these
circumstances. Father Point was sent back to take up his
old post. Father Hoecken we will see doing important
44 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
work in another spot. Under Father Point, the mission
progressed quietly until November, 1845, when he was
replaced by Father Joseph Joset the apostle of the
Coeur d'Alenes. He had a special predilection for this
tribe and they in turn loved him as a father and a friend.
Father Joset had come with orders to move the mission.
Every year the spring floods covered the fields and made
the mission very difficult of access, even on horseback.
The mosquitoes were also a real problem. After a serious
encounter with the vicious pests, Brother Charles Huet
had been confined to his bed for three days with a high
fever. Men could only flee from such an enemy.
In the spring of 1846, the mission was moved to a spot
on the banks of the Coeur d'Alene River, ten miles from
the lake of that name. They "put up a provisional bark
chapel, bark barn, surrounded a field and put in wheat,
potatoes, oats, and built three log houses." 9 This mission
was to become a landmark. Here was to be Ravalli's
famous Mission Church, here peace treaties were to be
negotiated and signed, here was to be the headquarters
for Captain John Mullan's surveying and construction
parties. Here was to be a haven for the thousands of
immigrants trekking over Mullan Road. These several
phases of the Coeur d'Alene mission we shall see,
ST. FRANCIS XAVIER'S MISSION IN OREGON
While the mission among the Coeur d'Alenes was
being pushed ahead in spite of difficulties, two other
foundations were begun. Father De Smet had reached
lower Oregon on July 31, 1844, landing at Fort Van-
couver on August 3. With him were recruits for the
Mountain Missions and Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES 45
to teach in Blanchet's school at St. Paul's on the Willam-
ette River. The party had to wait eight days for Blan-
chet, who had not received the letter telling of their
arrival. As soon as the Vicar-General should arrive, De
Smet was ready to set off to the Willamette to establish
a new Jesuit f oundation in Oregon.
The history of this mission went back as far as 1841
when John McLoughlin had begged De Smet to found a
mission in Oregon:
... if one o you with one or two of the lay brothers could come to
assist Messrs. Blanchette and Demers till their reinforcement came
from Canada it would be an immense benefit to religion and the
only apology I can give for thus obtruding my opinion is that from
my long residence in the country I have a right to claim some
knowledge of it and I am certain from your zeal in the cause you
only require information to act up to it if in your power. 10
A few months later De Smet made his long journey to
Fort Vancouver to buy provisions and tools. This was
the occasion for the consultation with Blanchet and
Demers, when
They assured [De Smet] that immense good might be done in the
extensive regions that border on the Pacific, if a greater number of
missionaries, with means at their command, were stationed in these
regions; and they urged me very strongly to obtain from my su-
periors some of our Fathers. 11
De Smet had returned to Oregon in 1844, determined
to establish a mother house for all the Jesuits in the Ore-
gon Country. This was to be headquarters for men and
supplies for all the missions of the interior and for the
proposed missions nearer the coast. With these plans in
mind, De Smet awaited Blanchet's arrival at Fort Van-
couver:
46 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
On the twelfth, after an eight day wait, Rev. Monseigneur Blan-
chet arrived; he had not received the letter which I had written to
him but as soon as the news of our arrival reached him, he hastened
to join us, accompanied by a goodly number of his flock. He had
journeyed one whole day and one night without stopping. 12
The newcomers were anxious to reach their new
homes on the Willamette. Blanchet therefore ordered
preparations made for the departure. After a touching
farewell to the good captain of the ship Infatigable
which had borne them safely to the mission, all em-
barked in the longboats which the Governor had put at
their disposal. Three of De Smet's party "stayed at the
fort to arrange the freight and to separate what was to
be sent on to the mountains from that intended for the
Willamette." 13
The little fleet of four canoes and one sloop wended
its way up the Willamette River until it reached the mis-
sion site. The weary Sisters rode the last five miles in a
cart. Two hours after arriving all were gathered in the
church "to adore and thank our divine Saviour, with a
solemn Te Deum, which was sung with keen emotion/' 14
My first care [narrates De Smet] was to seek some convenient
locality where, according to the plan of our Very Reverend Father
General, a mother mission could be established. For this purpose I
made several unsuccessful excursions into the adjacent country. The
most eligible situations were already occupied. 10
The difficulty was finally overcome by Blanchet's offer-
ing such portions of the land belonging to St. Paul's as
would fill the needs of the Jesuits.
Two miles from St. Paul's they found an ideal spot.
There was a slight elevation gradually sloping downward
and forming a charming amphitheatre on the shore of a
beautiful lake. On the shores of Lake Ignatius was built
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES 47
the mother mission of St. Francis Xavier. The ground
was cleared and three wooden buildings under a single
ninety- foot roof were built as workshops for the brother
blacksmith, carpenter, etc. "Besides these buildings, a
house forty-five feet by thirty is now under construc-
tion. This will be two stories and will serve as the resi-
dence for the missionaries/' 16
De Smet considered things well enough begun so that
he might leave for the interior. A few days after his
departure on October 3, 1844, Father De Vos arrived
from Coeur d'Alene to assume charge of the new mission.
Fathers Accolti, Ravalli, and Vercruysse were the helpers
on this mission for the first months.
Father Ravalli rendered valuable service with his
medical skill, since there were several sick in every Indian
hut. Father Vercruysse worked among the Canadians
at Grand Prairie. Here he built a church, "the most
beautiful and the grandest in Willamette." 17 Father
Nobili worked among the whites and natives at Fort
Vancouver for some months before coming to St. Paul's.
Father Accolti, along with the Fathers mentioned, de-
voted himself to the study of English. Father De Vos
was the only one of the priests who could speak English;
consequently, he worked zealously among the Americans.
So the winter months of 1844-45 passed. With the
coming of spring, these earnest workers were to be
separated and sent to several places. For supposed lack
of judgment in the management of affairs at St. Francis
Xavier's, Father De Vos was moved to Oregon City in
May, 1845. Father Accolti became superior of St.
Francis Xavier's, a place which he always ardently de-
fended. He had visions of its future greatness as a Jesuit
48 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
college and novitiate. In this he was not alone, for
Father De Smet shared the same hopes.
Actually, however, St. Francis Xavier's never f ulfilled
any of these dreams. The farm was well kept at con-
siderable expense, but there was little return. The station
was too far from any of the other missions to be of any
use as a headquarters or forwarding station. After the
gold rush of '49, when many Oregon settlers followed
the feverish stream southward, the mission, which had
never really been much, became less. St. Francis Xavier's
turned more and more into a farming enterprise, with
scarcely any spiritual ministry involved. For this reason,
in 1852, Father Roothan ordered that it should be sold
as soon as practicable. It is only necessary to go ahead
a few years to complete the story of this unfortunate
establishment, for near the end of the fifties, this ill-
starred venture passed from the record of history.
To return to the story. Father De Vos had been
moved to Oregon City in May, 1845. As pastor in this
promising settlement he seems to have "come into his
own." His efforts
. . . met with great success and his zeal was crowned by the reception
of a number of distinguished converts, among whom were Dr. J. E.
Long, Secretary of the Provisional Government [of Oregon], and
Peter H. Burnett, chief Justice of Oregon, 18
Besides his work in Oregon City, De Vos labored among
the Indian tribes living along the Lower Columbia and
made missionary excursions through the Willamette Val-
ley, and to Fort Vancouver. We will meet this aged
laborer again when we study the missions of the Upper
Columbia, whither he went in 1847.
What Father De Vos accomplished among the Ameri-
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES 49
cans, it might be said Father Vercruysse did for the
Canadians. The chapel at St. Louis, on French Prairie,
was built by him, as we saw, because he took pity on
these poor people who were forced to come so far to
fulfill their religious duties. What promised to be a
fruitful mission came to an inglorious end when a dis-
pute between pastor and parishioners arose over some
obscure matter. Father Vercruysse took up his new work
among the Kalispels at St. Ignatius' Mission in 1848.
The educational work begun at St. Paul's by the
diocesan clergy must be mentioned in the sketch of the
Jesuits. St. Joseph's College, conceived and operated by
Father Langlois, had every reason to anticipate a glorious
future, as did the school of the Sisters of Notre Dame.
But these schools, as well as the missionary labors of the
Jesuits, were to suffer irreparable decline by the dis-
covery of gold in California.
Thousands of people were rushing to the gold fields,
where there were practically no priests to minister to
them. The attraction of California gold was as effective
in Oregon as in the rest of the world. Its people were
flocking south, thus retarding, disrupting, and practi-
cally destroying all that had been accomplished. Those
responsible decided to send the much-needed priests
where the most apparent good could be done. It was
one of those very difficult decisions that must be made
by men opening up a new country without sufficient
means for the task. Oregon was abandoned! Men and
money from the Mountain Mission were diverted to the
boom towns of the South. By December 9, 1849, the
Jesuits, Accolti and Nobili, were laboring in California.
As they were preceded by the diocesan priests, Brouillet
and Langlois, so they were to be followed, in 1852, by
5 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
the Sisters of Notre Dame. So consistently was this
policy pursued that there were but two missions left in
the mountains by the early 1860's. St. Ignatius' Mission
in Montana and Sacred Heart Mission among the Coeur
d'Alenes were the only two to survive this mode of pro-
cedure, so ruinous to the northern missions. The decision
was unfortunate, as viewed from our vantage point,
ninety years removed. In any case, it was a desperate
course adopted by men, hard pressed for help, to meet
the untoward problem.
ST. IGNATIUS' MISSION AMONG THE KALISPELS
While the missionaries had been thus struggling to gain
a foothold in Oregon, events of more lasting significance
had been transpiring among the tribes of the Upper
Columbia. Here was founded the one Indian mission of
the Rocky Mountains which continues to our own day.
It has enjoyed ninety-six years of uninterrupted exist-
ence, not in the same locale, it is true, but among the
same people and under the same patron saint. St. Igna-
tius' Mission of the Kalispels has this unique honor.
The seeds for the mission were planted in 1841 when
De Smet made his hurried journey to Fort Colville to buy
provisions for the embryonic St. Mary's Mission and, as
he himself wrote, "to visit the Pend d'Oreilles," 10 The
same tribe had impressed him when he passed through
their country in 1842 on his way to Fort Vancouver*
When De Smet returned from Europe in August,
1844, determined to found the mother mission of St.
Francis Xavier on the Willamette, he summoned Father
De Vos to come from the Flathead mission that he might
assume charge of the new Oregon foundation. Before
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES 5 1
leaving for Oregon, De Vos sent Father Point back to
the Coeur d'Alene mission to replace Father Hoecken,
who had become estranged from his flock on account of
the purchase of the potatoes and the refusal of the
Indian maid to carry out a childhood betrothal. Hoecken
was ordered to meet Father De Vos in the country of the
Kalispels. Here they founded St. Michael's Mission on
the banks of the Clark Fork River. This took place in
September, 1844. 20
Father Hoecken began work immediately. When
Father De Smet arrived two months later, November 6,
the young missionary was full of praise for his new flock.
In proof of the good dispositions of the people, De Smet
quotes a letter of Father Hoecken:
The first thing which struck me on my arrival among them, was a
truly brotherly love and perfect union, which animated the whole
tribe and seemed to make them but one family. They manifest great
love, obedience and respect for their chiefs, and what is still more
admirable, they all, as the chiefs themselves declare, speak and desire
but one and the same thing. . . . Complaints, murmurings and back-
biting are here unknown; blasphemy has never been uttered by an
Indian: there are not even words in his language to express it. 21
From this certainly over-sanguine account one might
think that the only work the missionary had to perform
was the administration of baptism and the inculcation of
a supernatural attitude. There was more than that, for
these natives were cursed with the usual Indian vices.
Father Joset writes that when the mission was first
founded, the tribe "was given over to superstitions of a
gross fetish toward the furies of the spirit of vengeance,
and to a double immorality, that of gambling, and that
of polygamy." 22 There was work aplenty for the most
52 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
zealous priest. The saving feature of it all was the super-
abundant good will of the tribe.
Father De Smet had arrived on November 6 with the
intention of staying a short time. Actually he spent the
winter of 1844-45 with Father Hoecken because snow in
the mountains had made it impossible to reach St.
Mary's. The two Fathers spent the winter at the In-
dians* wintering camp on the Clark Fork, probably near
the present Albeni Falls, just east of Newport, Washing-
ton.
The place for wintering being determined, the first care of the
Indians was to erect the house of prayer. "WTiile the men cut down fir
trees, the women brought bark and mats to cover them. In two
days this humble house of the Lord was completed humble and
poor indeed, but truly the house of prayer, to which pure and simple
souls repaired to offer to the great spirit their vows and the tribute
of their affections. Here the missionaries continued with care and
diligence their instructions preparatory to baptism. 23
The great festival of Christmas, the day on which the little band
was to be added to the number of the true children of God, will
never be effaced from the memory of our good Indians. The manner
in which we celebrated midnight mass may give you an idea of our
festival. The signal for rising, which was to be given a few minutes
before midnight, was the firing of a pistol, announcing to the
Indians that the house of prayer would soon be open. This was
followed by a general discharge of guns in honor of the birth of the
Infant Savior, and 300 voices rose spontaneously from the midst of
the forest, and entoned in the language of the Pend d'Oreilles the
beautiful canticle: "D0 Dion puissant tout annonce la glofre" "The
Almighty's glory all things proclaim/* 24
Many of the tribe were baptized, and at Benediction on
Christmas Day fifty couples renewed their marriage
vows. This beginning augured well for the future. This
was one mission which would not disappoint the hopes
and plans that had been centered on it*
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES 53
At the first possible opportunity, De Smet left the
Kalispels to go to the Flatheads. At St. Mary's he spent
Easter of 1845. A few days later he returned to the
Kalispels to help Father Hoecken choose a better site for
the mission. The original location that had been selected
rather hastily by Father De Vos the preceding year
proved to be too low for the spring high water. Conse-
quently, Fathers De Smet and Hoecken, with some of
the chiefs, set about examining the country for a more
desirable spot.
We found a vast and beautiful prairie, three miles in extent, surround-
ed by cedar and pine, in the neighborhood of the cavern of New
Manresa and its quarries, and a fall of water more than 200 feet,
presenting every advantage for the erection of mills. I felled the first
tree, and after having taken all necessary measures to expedite the
work, I departed for Valla "Walla, . . . 26
De Smet was bound for Fort Vancouver to get supplies
for the new mission whose name he had changed from St.
Michael's to St. Ignatius*.
He had arrived again at St. Ignatius' by the middle of
July, 1845. With the help of Brother McGean and two
half-breeds, eleven horses heavily laden with plows, pick-
axes, spades, scythes, and carpenter's tools had been
brought safely from Willamette. This was De Smet's
contribution to the new enterprise.
Meanwhile Father Hoecken had not been resting.
Since De Smet's departure sometime in April until his
return in July, the little colony had built fourteen houses,
prepared material for the construction of a small church,
and enclosed a field of three hundred acres:
The whole village, men, women and children, had worked most
cheerfully I counted thirty head of horned cattle the squaws had
H THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
learned to milk the cows and to churn; they had a few hogs and
some domestic fowls. 26
Spiritually the tribe had also taken great strides. Ascen-
sion Thursday, May 1, had seen the baptism of more than
one hundred adults. This brought the total of baptized
Christian Kalispels to more than four hundred. "The
number of Christians had doubled since Christmas,
1844." 27
They are all animated with fervor and zeal; they make use of the
hatchet and plow, being resolved to abandon an itinerant life for a
permanent abode. 28
Spiritually and morally the mission prospered from its
very inception. Man, however, has a soul and a body.
These Indians had lived from the hunt and fishery and
could hardly be happy if there was no food in their new
home. That such was true gradually became more and
more apparent. The beautiful meadow which lay below
the mission hill was clay beneath a few inches of loam.
The seeds rotted quickly and the soil itself was rapidly
exhausted. Spring floods ruined crops year after year.
The very first winter of 1845-46 was extremely severe;
snow was five feet deep and the temperature went as
low as forty below zero. The buildings were so make-
shift that they were of little help against the intense cold.
During the coldest spell all would gather around the fire
at mealtime and take food from the pot a little at a time
lest it be cold before being eaten. The long evenings
were spent in explanations and discussions of the Jesuit
rules. The days were occupied in caring for the cattle
and gathering fuel. And despite the hardships, nowhere
in the accounts is there a note of despair or discourage-
ment.
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES 5 5
This winter the Indians had a regular holiday, slaugh-
tering the game that had been trapped by the deep snow
and could not, therefore, escape the hunters. They killed
even when the meat and skin were useless. Two years
later they repeated this wanton destruction and lived to
rue their foolishness, for by then the game was almost
exterminated.
One story of this harrowing winter brings out vividly
the conditions in which the pioneers were living. When
Christmas approached, Brother Magri was asked if he
had thought of building a crib in the church. cc *A crib/
said Br[other], *ycmr church, is it not a stable'?" 29 The
snow stayed until April, but at last it melted, and in the
spring of 1 846, the dauntless Indians set to work again.
Here we will leave St. Ignatius* thriving in things
spiritual, struggling desperately for things temporal.
The second chapter of its history begins with its transfer
to western Montana some years later.
MISSIONARY STATIONS ALONG THE UPPER COLUMBIA
AND FRASER RIVERS
The year 1845 had a special place in the early history
of the mission. Not only was St. Ignatius* founded, but
very many of these northern tribes were given a regular
opportunity to practice their religion by reason of the
stations which were established in their midst. The stories
of these new mission fields differ as much as the places
themselves. Here, in this part of the new mission, it was
a tale of brilliance, but of no permanence there, it was
a matter of quiet, calm drudgery spanning many years
with just sufficient success to let the laborers keep heart.
Into the brilliant but fleeting class fell the work which
56 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Father John Nobili did in New Caledonia, in what is
today British Columbia. "In the month of June Father
Nobili, accompanied by a novice brother, left Willam-
ette to visit the tribes of New Caledonia.'* 30
Nobili and his companion, with three pack horses,
traveled the first three days with a Hudson's Bay man as
guide. He then deserted the Father and his companion,
taking the missionary's tent and provisions. Naturally
the two travelers got lost and hunger and thirst brought
them close to death. Two Indians from the Cascades,
whom Father Nobili had known at Fort Vancouver,
saved them. An owl which the Indians had killed a short
time before served to appease their ravishing appetites. 31
This was hardly an auspicious beginning for their mission
among people who had been visited but twice before by
a blackrobe.
Actually, Nobili's trip of 1845 was very consoling, if
we judge from his own account:
At Fort Okinagane I baptized nine infants on July 27, the children
of the chief of the Siouxwaps were among the number. He seemed
extremely happy to see a Blackrobe tending toward his country. I
left Okinagane on the twenty-ninth and followed the Company
[brigade]. Each night I would pray with the whites and the Indians.
While enroute, three old men came earnestly beseeching me "to have
pity on them and prepare them for heaven." They were instructed in
the duties and principles of religion and the necessity of Baptism, I
administered the sacrament of regeneration to these and then to
forty-six children, who seemed to desire it with great ardor.
A tribe of Indians who lived in the vicinity of the Upper Lake on
the Thompson River came to meet me on August 11. They mani-
fested toward me a filial and sincere affection. They accompanied me
for several days to hear my instructions nor would they depart
before I had promised to return during the following autumn or
winter to teach them the glad tidings of salvation.
At the fort of the Siouxwaps, I was visited by all the chiefs who
congratulated me on my safe arrival in their midst. They built a
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES 57
large cabin which was to serve as a church and as a gathering place
for the instructions during my stay. I baptized twelve of their
infants. I was obliged, when the salmon fishing began* to leave these
dear Indians for some months and to continue my journey toward
New Caledonia. 32
At Fort Alexandria, on the Fraser River, he was sur-
prised to find "a frame church." Here he stayed a month
to give the Canadians an opportunity of performing
their religious duties. He blessed many marriages, gave
Holy Communion to a great number of the children, and
baptized forty-seven adults. On September 12 he
reached Fort George after a dangerous ten-day journey
up the Fraser River* Fifty Indians from the Rocky
Mountains had been awaiting his arrival for nineteen
days simply to have the consolation of witnessing the
baptismal rites. "I baptized twelve of their children and
twenty-seven others; of these, six adults were well along
in years. I performed the ceremony of the planting of
a cross." 33 On September 24, after another ten days on
the Fraser River, he reached Stuart Lake.
I spent eleven days instructing the Indains, and I had the happiness
of abolishing the custom of burning the dead and torturing the
widows or the survivors of the husband. They solemnly renounced
their jugglers and their idolatry. Their large medicine lodge where
they were accustomed to practise their superstitious rites was con-
verted into a church. 84
Father Nobili blessed the church and dedicated it to God
under the protection of St. Francis Xavier. He solemnly
erected a cross. Sixteen children and five old men were
baptized before he quitted the place.
The twenty-fourth of October, 1845, found him
working among the Chilcotins:
58 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
This mission lasted twelve days; during these days I baptized eighteen
children and twenty-four adults and performed eight marriages. I
blessed, there, the first cemetery and interred, with all the ceremonies
of the ritual, an Indian woman who had been the first Christian
convert. I then visited two other villages of the same tribe. In the
first I baptized twenty persons, three of whom were adults; m the
second, two chiefs, with thirty of their tribe, received baptism, and
two were united in marriage. Polygamy was rampant everywhere
and everywhere I succeeded in abolishing it. In a neighboring tribe
I baptized fifty-seven people, thirty-one of whom were adults; I
also performed nine marriages. 85
On his way to Fort Colville to meet De Smet, Nobili
stopped at the Siouxwaps where he baptized forty-one
natives, including eleven adults:
I visited five more near-by villages of the neighboring tribes where
I baptized some two hundred people. I planted the cross in eight
different spots and established four frame churches which were built
by the Indians. 36
Here, in his own words, we have an account of Nobili's
first sortie into New Caledonia.
Nobili met De Smet at Colville in May, 1846. He
made his report to his superior and devoted himself to his
annual retreat of eight days before recuperating for a
month from his strenuous year's labor. July, 1846, saw
him again northward bound. The trials, perils, suffer-
ings, and triumphs of this year were much like those of
1845. The hardest blow came in March, 1847, when he
was informed by Father Joset, Superior-General of the
missions, that Father General desired all the upper coun-
try to be left to the care of the diocesan clergy. The
obedient Jesuit came south immediately, leaving forever,
as he thought, his chosen field. He arrived at Willamette
,on July 11, 1847, only to turn northward again on Sep-
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES 59
tember 16 of the same year. Father Anthony Goetz was
his new companion.
Father Nobili began working among the tribes while
Father Goetz was left alone at St. Joseph's, a residence on
Lake Okanagan. The solitude proved too much of a
strain on Father Goetz and forced his recall to Coeur
d'Alene Mission in the early part of 1848. Father Nobili
spent another brilliant year in the mission until recalled
in November, 1848. The next spring he pronounced his
last vows as a Jesuit, and near the end of the same year he
was sent to California, since it had been decided to sup-
press finally the mission of New Caledonia, owing to the
alarming need of men for the mountains and for the new
California mission. Some years later Father De Smet was
to paint a terribly vivid word-miniature of Nobili's life
in New Caledonia:
During his sojourn in New Caledonia Father Nobili was forced to
endure great privations. For one whole year he had to subsist on a
sort of moss or grass and roots which he pulled from the ground. His
food usually consisted of horse flesh and often he was reduced to
eating the flesh of dogs and wolves. What he had to suffer from cold,
hunger and other privations is known to God alone. To men, the
reality would appear incredible. 37
Little wonder God had blessed Father Nobili's few short
years in New Caledonia and still less astonishing that the
valiant missionary's health broke under the strain. He
paid dearly for the success of his work.
Less fascinating perhaps, because less dramatic, were
the other stations founded in the upper country during
this same period. In the course of the year 1 845, De Smet
founded stations among the Kootenai tribe:
I administered the sacrament of baptism to 105 persons, among
whom were twenty adults. An imposing ceremony terminated the
60 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
exercises of the day. Amidst a general salute from the camp, a large
cross was elevated. The chiefs, at the head of their tribe, advanced
and prostrated themselves before that sacred ensign, which speaks
so eloquently of the love of a Man-God, who came to redeem a fallen
race. At the foot of that sacred emblem, they loudly offered their
hearts to him who has declared himself our master and the divine
pastor of souls. This station bears the name of the Holy Heart of
Mary. 88
When De Smet spent Easter of 184J at St. Mary's
among "his dear Flatheads" he made mention of another
of the stations:
The solemn feast of Easter, all the Flatheads at St. Mary's devoutly
approached the most blessed Sacrament during my mass; and about
300 Pend d'Oreilles (the greater number adults), belonging to the
station of St. Francis Borgia, presented themselves at the baptismal
font. 89
St. Francis Borgia's was founded for the Upper Pend
d'Oreilles, as St. Ignatius* had been established for the
Lower Pend d'Oreilles. The very next year De Smet
paid a beautiful tribute to these Indians of St. Francis
Borgia's station when he credited them with a zeal
rivaling that of the Flatheads in the practice of their
religious duties. 40
De Smet erected another station this same year among
the Flatbow tribe. The Indians were in excellent disposi-
tions to receive the faith, owing to the work of a Cana-
dian trader who had been living with them for some
time. De Smet baptized ten adults and ninety children.
He erected a cross on the shore of the lake and named the
new station Assumption.
St, Peter's was opened the same year as a station for the
Lake Indians living along the Columbia north of the
Kettle Falls tribe.
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES 61
To the southwest of St. Ignatius* a station was opened
on August 4, 1845, under the patronage of St. Francis
Regis, The resident Cree half-breeds had selected land
for a village, and several buildings were under construc-
tion when De Smet visited the spot in 1845.
St. Paul's Mission for the Kettle Falls Indians was also
established this same year. De Smet tells the story:
About the middle of July, 1845, 1 arrived safe and sound with all my
effects at the Bay of the Kalispels. . . .
The magnificent falls of the Columbia, called the Kettle Falls, in the
neighborhood of Fort Colville, are only two day's journey from our
new residence of St. Ignatius.
Eight or nine hundred savages are gathered there for the salmon
fishing. I arrived in time to spend with them the nine days preceding
the feast of our holy founder. During the last four years, a con-
siderable number of these Indians have been visited by the blackrobes,
who administered the sacrament of Baptism to them. I was received
by my dear Indians with joy and an utterly filial kindness. 41
In the midst of the Indian huts, De Smet built a little
chapel of boughs in which the natives assiduously at-
tended his instructions thrice daily, His stay ended with
Solemn Mass followed by baptism.
The savages were happy. It was an inspiring scene, and all the sur-
roundings tended to give it magnificence. On one side the towering
and gigantic rocks, on the other, one heard the distant roar of the
cataracts breaking in on the sacred silence of that solitude, situated
on an eminence overlooking the mighty river Oregon; we were at
the point where the raging waters, bursting their bonds, launch them-
selves with fury and hurl themselves against the rocky masses,
throwing upward countless sprays whose jets reflect in myriad colors
the rays of the dazzling sun. 42
Thus did De Smet describe the inception of this mission.
"I gave the name of St. Paul to the Skoyelpi nation. . . . "
He left here August 4, 1 845.
62 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
The same year Father Anthony Ravalli built a crude
log cabin to serve as a church. Here he worked inter-
mittently among the Kettle Falls Indians and the em-
ployees of the Hudson's Bay post until the arrival of
Father De Vos in the fall of 1847. 43 De Vos took up his
work at St. Paul's with vigor and for three years he
labored diligently. From the records one sees that he was
always instructing, baptizing, blessing marriages, and
performing the other spiritual functions for which he
had been sent.
The whites at Fort Colville helped the work much by
their good example. They came to Mass faithfully on
Sundays and feast days; they approached the sacraments
regularly and attended Vespers and Benediction,
The Indian chiefs were no less careful to do their part.
They studiously guarded against disorders of all kinds.
In the end, however, it was the apostasy of the head chief
and his condoning of evil that broke the spirit of Father
De Vos. The head chief had refused to punish his
daughter's scandalous behavior and in his last illness had
had recourse to a pretended sorcerer. This grave defec-
tion was too much for the delicate health of the aged
missionary. In the spring of 1 8 5 1 he was forced to retire
to Willamette while Fathers Joset and Vercruysse suc-
ceeded him at St. Paul's.
The early stages of the mission were passed. St. Paul's
now enters on its brief history, and here we leave our
narrative for the time being.
The year 1845 ended with the Rocky Mountain Mis-
sion, to all appearances, well established. As a matter of
fact, within a few years the real crisis in the mission's
life would come. But at the moment there existed mis-
sions reasonably well founded: St. Mary's, the mother
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS BEYOND THE ROCKIES 63
mission for Montana Territory; St. Paul's, and later St.
Francis Regis' for Washington Territory; Sacred Heart
Mission among the Coeur d'Alenes for Idaho Territory;
defunct St. Francis Xavier's was the seed fallen into the
ground from which later Jesuit work was to grow in
Oregon. They were the nuclei for the later growth and
development of the Jesuits' work in the Far West.
CHAPTER V
Jesuit Missions in Montana
ST. MARY'S MISSION AMONG THE FLATHEADS
THE HISTORY OF THE JESUITS IN MONTANA BEGAN
with De Smet's first journey to this territory in 1840.
The story of the Jesuits 3 permanent work among these
tribes commenced with the establishment of St. Mary's
among the Flatheads the following year. We last saw
Father Mengarini laboring in this spot in August, 1842,
when De Smet passed through the country on his way
back from Fort Vancouver, bound for Europe. Men-
garini loved his flock and worked accordingly. But he
was to work almost in vain. For the history of these ten
years is the story of a meteor's rise and a feather's fall.
In a few months the mission was incredibly fervent only
to decline and decay until it was finally closed.
Mengarini sadly writes:
. . . could I have foreseen the future, 1843 would have been for me
then, as it has been since, one of the saddest years of my life; for in
it were sown the first seeds of the destruction of the Flathead
Mission. 1
He did not foresee the future and in this ignorance he
worked:
As time went on, I organized a band among the Indians. It was
rather a conglomerate affair, but at the same time the wonder and
admiration of the non-musicians. We had a clarinet, flute, two accor*
64
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 65
dions, a tambourine, piccolo, cymbals and bass-drum. We played
according to notes; for Indians have excellent eyes and ears; and our
band, if weak in numbers, was certainly strong in lungs; for such as
had wind instruments spared neither contortions of the face, nor
exertions of their organs of respiration to give volume to the music. 2
More serious matters were also tended to by this enter-
prising Father:
Among those who had accompanied me in my return from Van-
couver, was a Canadian named Biledot. He came to build and put in
working order two mills at the mission, a flour mill and a saw mill. . . .
When May came the flour mill was already in operation and the
saw mill was ready for starting. 8
This Canadian was assisted by Father Ravalli and Brother
Claessens, the three of them building the first grist mill
in Montana.
The sawmill they made from old wagon tires twisted
and bent for the crank; another tire they hammered and
filed for the saw. Most probably it was not perfect but
it was much better than doing the work completely by
hand.
The little mission forged ahead in spite of the opposi-
tion which, as we shall see presently, was considerable.
De Smet was astonished by its progress when he visited
there in 1846:
Judge of my happiness when I saw the little log church built five
years ago for divine service about to be replaced by another which
might well be compared with sacred edifices in civilized countries;
materials and everything needed for its construction is ready,
matters only await the procural of ropes to hoist the heavy beams
onto the foundations. Another pleasant surprise awaited me; a mill
had been built which was destined to contribute considerably to the
growing needs of the country round about. It performed a double
charitable office; it fed the hungry and sheltered those without
houses,*
66 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
De Smet also mentioned the sawmill which was in opera-
tion. He continued:
The soil yields abundant crops of wheat, oats and potatoes the fer-
tile prairies of this country are capable of supporting countless
cattle. 5
Two large rivers brought water for irrigating the
fields, gardens, and orchards. At the time of writing
there were forty head of cattle, a fast-increasing herd of
hogs, and a large flock of domestic fowl. Besides the
mill, there were a dozen frame houses of similar con-
struction. "From this you can form some notion of the
temporal blessings enjoyed by the Flatheads of St. Mary's
village."
De Smet continues this letter with a glowing account
of the progress that had been made on all fronts by the
mission. There was plenty to eat, and a great variety.
The mission had become famous among the neighboring
tribes. The grosser faults of the Flatheads had been
entirely abolished. War and bloodshed had decreased
sharply; hate and revenge had been tempered by Chris-
tian love. A glorious picture, indeed, but hardly one to
prepare the reader for the rapid extinction of the mis-
sion, which followed.
The closing of St. Mary's was not, however, a matter
of weeks or months. In spite of the laudatory narrative
of De Smet, there were troubles that had to be faced by
the mission from its very inception, and these did not
lessen with time. Instead, with added difficulties, they
forced the eventual abandonment of this establishment.
The Blackf oot Indians were a chronic problem for the
missionaries:
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 67
The Blackf eet [narrates Brother Claessens] were a great trouble to us.
So much so that at 3 miles from the mission we were not sure of our
lives. Brother Joseph [Specht] and I spent many a weary night in
sharp lookout on the top of our bastions with our guns. Fr. De Smet
bade me never to undress at night, and to make a wooden cannon to
keep the Blackf eet away. 6
De Smet himself had taken a long journey into south
central Canada searching for the Blackf eet during 1845,
a year that had been disastrous for the tribe. They had
lost twenty-one in two skirmishes with the Flatheads
and Kalispels; the Crees had taken twenty-seven scalps
and stolen several horses; the Crows had massacred the
entire band of Little Robe and led 160 women into
captivity. Some of these captives were sacrificed while
others were enslaved. De Smet thought this would be
an opportune time to negotiate a peace between the
Flatheads and the Blackfeet. He was not entirely suc-
cessful because he could only find part of the Blackf oot
tribe.
Father Mengarini had an open break with the Flat-
heads in 1847. Little Faro, one of the natives, tried to
assemble the Indians for prayer in his lodge. Father
Mengarini publicly denounced Faro's action and by this
made an enemy of him. Faro then began to stir up the
tribe against the Fathers. The Indians were put under
interdict and denied Mass until their hostility and in-
subordination ceased. Faro was forced to repent tem-
porarily.
The next year the tribe went on its spring hunt. Once
away from the vigilant eye of the missionary they gave
themselves up to license. One of the Indians reported
to Father Mengarini, "They have behaved even worse
than they did before you came." 7
e>8 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
The last days of the mission are described with un-
polished vividness by Father Ravalli:
In the fall of 1848 and along the next year was the emigration of
the Mormons going to establish themselves to Salt Lake not very far
from Fort Hall. When their transit was not very far from St. Mary,
the trappers of this country and environs, generally Canadian people
engaged before to the H.B Company stampeded to meet the Mormons,
and to swap with them ponies against cattle and other useful things.
Some of our Indians too went with them. As we were the only
whites who began here husbandry and agriculture, before winter we
had several of such trappers at our Mission with their herd, protesting
to come to make their religion and winter with us. Helas! what was
their Religion! You are acquainted what is a Canadian of low ex-
traction, especially such who neglected for many years religion and
to whom Religion is a thing for Vielles femmes! They did not have
to pretend from us the one, the other thing, which as necessary for us,
and fruit of our labor, we could not give without damage of our
domestic economy or to our small band of cattle. Hence the aversion
from us of such saintly people, showed with continual grumbling and
manifest calumnies disseminated by them amongst our Indians, the
language of whom they were acquainted being generally united with
Indian Women. We did not also have to see the influence of such
malcontents as these in the behaviour of our Indians, growing less
affectionate and indifferent, and showing pretentions unknown be-
fore by them. The absenting of them from our place for hunt, for
fishing, for roots and berries which before was out of necessity, be-
came more frequent, and in great part out of love of freedom and
unrestraint. Such were the conditions of our Indians, when happened
that they surprise near our camp a Blackf oot under cover, expecting
the proper time for stealing horses. They took him to the camp, and
after short consultation shot him there. In the same time another
Blackf cot who has peaceably in the camp for several weeks, excited
by fear, tried to run away from our Flatheads. The Indians interpret-
ing in bad part this starting, ran after him and shot him in the kidney,
for which he died three days after, having in the short time been
instructed and baptized by me. This second Blackfoot was a favorite
amongst his nation, and to revenge him they purposed to come and
kill the Fathers resident with them. Our Flatheads were aware of
such determination of the hostiles, but they did not say anything
to us in that time, and as there was nothing of the matter they
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 69
started all, the great part for Buffalo, and some lodges to dig roots or
to fish, leaving in the camp only very old women and little children,
and the Father without any protection. Only one old chief and a
good for nothing man and two boys remained with us. ... I remained
in St. Mary Mission alone with brother Classens. As we were too ex-
posed, I thought prudent to gather every night such defenceless
women and children with their horses in the enclosure of our palisade,
and the fact proved how wisely it was done. Early in the morning
of 12 September an hue of a band of Blackfeet was heard, who near-
ing to the sight of our wall of defense, and unaware of the number of
people inside to confront them, did not dare to come to an attack but
seeing the band of horses just coming out from our fort to graze,
they drove them all away. The Indian boy helping us in cooking, went
out of the fort, and he only suffered the cruel death prepared for me
and brother. Father Joset at the news of the escaped danger arrived
some weeks after with a little band of Coeur d'Alenes, and seeing
how exposed we were, and the long time we had to expect before the
return of the Indians from Buffalo, for our protection, determined
to remove us from the place at least for a short interval and send
us to other missions. Just at the same time he was with me at St.
Mary, arrived there Major John Owen with the intention to locate
himself somewhere in the valley. To him then he [Joset] proposed
and was accepted to sell several articles of our house not easy of trans-
portation; and also the rails of our field, the all for 300 dollars. 8
Perhaps someone else could tell the story with more
polish and style but certainly no one could trace the
gradual dissolution of hopes and dreams with more feel-
ing than Father Ravalli has in this letter.
The mission was closed temporarily. Actually it would
be many years before it reopened. The main cause of
the delay would be the need for men in the newest off-
spring of the Mountain Mission the mission of Cali-
fornia. Father Michael Accolti had been appointed su-
perior of the Rocky Mountain Missions in 1850. The
predilection of this great priest had been for the Cali-
fornia mission ever since his visit there in the preceding
year. Hence, it is not surprising that men and money
70 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
from the Mountain Mission were now poured out with-
out stint to give a vigorous infancy to the new establish-
ments in the South.
New Caledonia had been abandoned by order of Ac-
colti's predecessor, Father Joseph Joset; St. Mary's had
been abandoned by order of the same; Oregon City was
abandoned as a result of Accolti's misunderstanding with
Archbishop F. N. Blanchet. The northern missions were
declining. What was worse, little or nothing was being
done to remedy the situation. The demands being made
for priests in California to work among the whites and
the increasing need for missionaries in the Indian coun-
try constituted an insoluble problem. Father Nicholas
Congiato replaced Father Accolti in 1854 as superior of
the whole mission. It was. four years after this before the
mission began to forge ahead once more.
These facts explain why St. Mary's did not reopen as
soon as had been planned,
ST. IGNATIUS' MISSION
The second mission in Montana had been founded by
Father Peter De Vos and Father Adrian Hoecken in
1844 on the Clark Fork River in northeastern Wash-
ington. The early years were one endless struggle
against conspiring elements. The history immediately
preceding the transfer of this mission to a new location
is the story of a futile fight against factors over which
men have no control.
By 1849, the mission was well established, if judged
from its buildings. There was an unfinished church
sixty-five by thirty-five feet. There was a wooden house
of three sections, which contained kitchen, dormitory,
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 71
dining room, and office for transacting business with the
missionary. There was a house for the superior. Apart
from these stood a carpenter shop, a barn, one hundred
and four feet by twenty, and a stable, thirty by twenty-
five. 9 But with all these strong buildings and fine barns
there was not enough for the Indians to eat.
The severe winters and the spring floods made it
impossible to plan on provisions for the year. In spite
of the apparent prosperity there were several good rea-
sons why the mission had to be moved, as we learn from
Fathers Joset and Ravalli:
The position of such a new mission was very unfavorable for the
purpose of giving to the Indians the chance of cultivating land and,
by it, means of living. The land good for agriculture was limited to a
few patches along the river, which was not sufficient to be parcelled
to each Indian family. 10
The Indians without land lived on fish and roots, but
when these failed there was famine. The big game had
been practically exterminated in the first winters of the
mission's existence by wanton destruction by the natives.
During the winter of 1853 the superior then at Colville [St.
Paul's] received several letters intimating that the neophytes were
clamoring to move to a place where they could live. In the fourth
letter the Chief, Victor, was reported saying: "the Superior does not
love us, since he wants us to die here of starvation. ["] Thereupon
they were told, "go and look for a better situation." 11
Father Menetrey and Brother McGean decided on the
location which was ultimately adopted. At the last
minute, the Kalispels wanted to stay, but by then too
much labor, money, and patience had been expended to
break off the new project. To transport the equipment,
72 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Brother McGean had built five barges and many packing
cases:
Having set out from the Kalispel Mission on the 28th of August,
1854, 1 arrived at the place designated on the 24th of September, and
found it such as it had been represented. ... I shall never forget the
emotions of hope and fear that filled my heart, when for the first
time I celebrated mass in this lonely spot, in the open air, in the pres-
ence of a numerous band of Kalispels, who looked up to me, under
God, for their temporal and spiritual welfare in this new home.
The place was utterly uninhabited. ... In a few weeks we had erected
several frame buildings, a chapel, two houses, carpenter's and black-
smith's shops; wigwams had sprung up at the same time all around in
considerable numbers, and morning and evening you might still have
heard the sound of the axe and the hammer, and have seen new-
comers rudely putting together lodges. 12
By spring, Brother McGean had split some 18,000 rails,
and had put a good-sized field under cultivation.
For the success of this new endeavor, Father Hoecken
was deeply indebted to Lieutenant John Mullan who
wintered among the Flatheads that year:
I know not how to acquit the debt of gratitude I owe this most ex-
cellent officer, and I can only pray, poor missionary as I am, that the
Lord may repay his generosity and kindness a hundred-fold in bless-
ings of time and eternity. 18
One of the motives for moving St. Ignatius' had been
to put it in a more central place so that all the surround-
ing tribes might have easy access to the mission. The
happy results of the plan even surprised Father Hoecken.
About Easter of this year 1875, over 1,000 Indians of different
tribes, from the Upper Kootenais and Flat-Bow Indians, Pend
d'Oreilles, Flatheads and Mountain Kalispels, who had arrived in
succession during the winter, when they heard of the arrival of the
long-desired Black-gown, made this place their permanent residence. 14
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 73
This same year, which seemed so full of promise for
the mission, witnessed the first official contact the mis-
sionaries had with the United States Government Indian
policies. In July, 1855, Isaac I. Stevens negotiated a
treaty with the Kootenais, Pend d'Oreilles, and Flatheads.
Father Hoecken attended the council and signed the
treaty at the special request of Stevens. He was also to
attend the famous Blackf oot Council held by Stevens in
October of the same year* This particular Flathead
treaty was to be the root of all the future troubles, and
there were many, between the United States and the
Flatheads.
The treaty allowed the Flatheads to remain on
their traditional lands in the Bitter Root Valley so long
as the government did not require them to move to the
reservation on the Jocko. This clause was certainly con-
ditional, a fact which the Indians did not seem to under-
stand. Years later, Chariot, the great chief of the Flat-
heads, was to stand firmly on what he thought had been
agreed by the "Great White Father*' in Washington.
This Flathead Treaty also provided for schools, but
neglected to make provisions for the money with which
to conduct them. As early as 1855, Father Hoecken
asked Father De Smet to send two dozen spelling books
in the next year's supplies* 15 His attempt to carry out
what had been promised by the government was soon
discontinued simply because the Jesuits did not have the
funds and they were not forthcoming from the govern-
ment in "Washington.
The aid which Father Hoecken extended to Stevens on
this occasion was but a forerunner of what would be
repeated many times during the years that followed.
Hoecken with the Flatheads; Gazzoli, Ravalli, and Joset
74 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
with the Spokanes, Cayuse, and Coeur d'Alenes; and
Menetrey with the Yakimas were all to supply their ex-
perience and knowledge to help Stevens in his "Treaty
Tour" of the 1850's. The services of these missionaries
were to be gratefully acknowledged time and again by
the men in the field and by the officials in Washington.
De Smet was even appointed a chaplain in the United
States Army under General William S. Harney, when
the latter was detailed to quell, the far- western Indians.
The peace work of the Jesuits constitutes a little-known
chapter in the bloody Indian wars which had their begin-
nings in the Whitman Massacre of 1847 and were not to
end until Chief Joseph's Nez Perces were conquered in
1877* Through this whole red page of history, the
Fathers played the role of peacemakers. This beautiful
story was begun by Hoecken at Hell Gate, July 16, 1855.
The life of the mission settled into its regular routine.
Flour mill and whipcord mill were built in the early
years. The materials for both were of local origin. The
power to drive them came from a near-by stream. The
Fathers accomplished a good deal with the little they
had.
Eight years after the first attempt to found a school
for the Indians, the Jesuits once more set about making
plans. On June 1, 1864, four Sisters of Providence left
their mother house in Montreal. They reached St. Igna-
tius' Mission, October 17, after a long trip from New
York, through the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco,
and thence to Vancouver. The one month's journey
overland from Vancouver to the mission was probably
the most difficult part of the journey. 16
Once at the mission, they set to work immediately in-
structing the children. Father Grassi was actually con-
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 75
structing a large school building, but the good Sisters did
not idly await its completion. The school, begun so in-
auspiciously in October, 1864, was to grow under the
careful vigilance and tireless labors of the Sisters and
Fathers until it had reached undreamed-of greatness by
1890.
The system of education followed by the Sisters was
very simple in the beginning. As the years went by, it
was perfected and polished at various points, but never
radically changed. They wanted "to train and instruct
their heads, their hearts, no less than their hands by the
force of example." 17 In the education of the Indian,
... it is manifest that the means of Christianity and the means of
material civilization must go hand in hand in the process. Without
the former the Indian is at best but a whitewashed savage; without
the latter he is simply a helpless being. . . .
In our opinion, after Christianity, next in importance as a factor
of Indian civilization is work and manual labor. The Indian has a
great, deep, natural aversion to work and manual exercise of any
kind; and as his lack of industrious activity, diligence, and love of
toil is what constitutes materially his uncivilized condition, it must
needs also be what perpetuates it; and consequently, it is not possible
to improve his material condition without forming him to habits
of industry and useful toil. . . .
A plain common English education spelling, reading, and writing,
with the rudiments of arithmetic will be for the Indian at large
book-learning enough for all the purposes of his civilized life and
social intercourse. Anything beyond that, in our opinion, would be
detrimental, not beneficial, to him; it would but feed and encourage
his natural indolence at the expense of what he needs most, industrial
education. An Indian youth will sooner sit five hours at a stretch,
stupid-like and half asleep, with a book open before him than hoe a
row of potatoes. 18
These were the principles followed for boys and girls.
For the boys there was a carpenter and blacksmith shop,
gardens, barns, and fields where they learned the useful
76 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
arts. The girls were taught sewing, cooking, laundry,
and dairy work, as well as gardening. The majority of
the pupils concentrated on these manual arts while the
more intellectual pursuits were kept at a minimum. As
usual, the Jesuits were accused of nurturing the desire to
keep the Indians ignorant, the more easily to exercise
their "priest-craft" on the benighted savages. This was
a stupid accusation. The explanation of the educational
system was simply that the Fathers realized the futility
of trying to make a white man out of a red man. Rather,
they wanted to make better Indians but still Indians.
The failure to grasp this rather fundamental point is
the reason for the many and tragic failures made by
others in the field of Indian education.
"What success attended the efforts of the Fathers and
Sisters? Fortunately, the testimonials and praise of their
work came from the most disparate sources. His Excel-
lency, James O'Connor, Bishop of Omaha, visited the
mission in the summer of 1877. Afterwards he wrote of
the Indian pupils in the school:
They took great pride in showing me these little gardens and insisted
on my tasting their strawberries, which were the largest and the most
luscious I had ever tasted. Everyone who visits convents knows the
neatness with which they are kept, but the order and cleanliness of
this house surpassed anything of the kind I had ever seen. 19
Probably the most unusual tribute ever paid the edu-
cational work of the Jesuits was that of George G. Vest,
Senator from Missouri. Senator Vest had been appointed
to a committee sent in 1883 to inspect the Indian schools.
He reported his findings before the Senate on May 12,
1884:
In all my wanderings in Montana last summer [began the
tor], I saw but one ray of light on the subject of Indian education. I
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 77
am a Protestant born one, educated one, and expect to die one
but I say now that the system adopted by the Jesuits is the only
practical system for the education of the Indian, and the only one
that has resulted in anything at all. 20
The official reports of the Indian agents and other
government officials form one endless paean of praise for
the schools of the Sisters and Fathers. Often enough,
the agents disliked the influence the Fathers had over
the people, but one has to search long to find a word
spoken against the conduct of the schools.
The first school at St. Ignatius' was conducted by the
Sisters of Providence for the Indian girls. The school
was so successful that ways were sought to support a like
institution for boys. The girls' school had been main-
tained from money collected by the Sisters on begging
tours among the mining camps. The boys* school also
would have to depend on the mission for maintenance;
hence, in the beginning it was small. Until 1874, the
existence of the schools was, at most, a precarious mat-
ter. Finally, in this year, the government began to
subsidize these institutions. At last, plans could be
made and definite objectives set down. In spite of oppo-
sition from unsympathetic officials, St. Ignatius* con-
tinued to grow. The curriculum was constantly expand-
ing. In 1874, Father Alexander Diomedi brought a
printing press from the East. The gristmill, the sawmill,
the planer, and the shingle-cutting machine gave new
avenues of development for the boys* talents. Cobblers,
painters, tinsmiths, and harness makers became promi-
nent in this advanced school of industrial arts. Little
wonder that the government was paying for three hun-
dred pupils at St. Ignatius' in 1890!
The years 1890-96 were the "Golden Age*' for the
78 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
schools at St. Ignatius'. The Providence Sisters had a
highly successful boarding school for girls; the Ursulines
began a kindergarten in 1890, which prospered; the
Jesuits had a well-established boarding school for boys.
The year 1896 marked the beginning of a decline. All
government aid stopped. This in itself was nearly a
deathblow, for the schools depended on this source of
income. The kindergarten relied on charity for the sup-
port of those children under four years of age, for whom
the government made no allowance. This same year the
boys' school and dormitory were burned down by one of
the pupils who had hoped that there would be no classes
if there were no school. As another building was imme-
diately adapted for school use, classes went on without
interruption. 21
The failure of government support and this disastrous
fire made it imperative to collect more money. Father
Cataldo started on a begging tour through the eastern
United States beginning in October, 1900:
It was a pitiful sight to see the aged Father Cataldo, S.J., recently
collecting in the city of Washington that he might help to save the
magnificent schools of the Jesuit missions from utter ruin. After
toiling for nearly forty years among the tribes of the Northwest and
sustaining untold dangers and sufferings, it would seem that he and
others of his noble type might have been spared, by a generous
Catholic public, the fatigue and humiliation of begging from door to
door, 22
Such was the contemporaneous comment on this trip
of Father Cataldo's during which he managed to gather
$3,000. This was not enough, and though forty years
have passed, the school has never fully recovered.
The whole establishment of the Sisters of Providence
was lost by fire in 1919. Thus, forty-five years of won-
derfully fruitful labor ceased in a few hours.
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 79
That all might share the suffering, the Ursuline School
and convent burned in 1922. Here again, the faithful
work of years was gone, but the Ursulines managed to
rebuild their school and continue their splendid work to
the present day.
The Providence Sisters remain at their posts conduct-
ing an excellently kept hospital for the Indians. These
holy virgins of Christ thus hold to their trying duties,
expending their life's blood for a race that is more and
more forgotten.
However, there was more to the mission at St. Ignatius
than a school; for, while the normal life of the mission
went on round about them, the classrooms afforded a
means to the salvation of the young Indians. It was in
August, 1879, that Archbishop Charles J. Seghers, the
future martyr of Alaska, visited St. Ignatius'. On two
separate occasions during his visit, he confirmed a total
of 113 faithful. Three years later, he made a second
confirmation tour and this time forty received the Sacra-
ment of the Holy Spirit. This visit was the occasion of
a humorous incident:
While examining some Indians for confirmation with the help of
Father Cataldo, His Grace noticed in the group before him an elderly
Kalispel, whom he felt sure he had confirmed on a previous occasion.
"But you, my son, have received the Holy Ghost already," said the
Archbishop to the Indian. "Yes, Great Black Robe," answered the
Indian; "but I lost Him; He got drowned crossing the river." The
poor fellow was far from jesting or being irreverent: he only ex-
pressed himself as best he knew. The Archbishop was wont to give
a little medal to each Indian he confirmed, as a remembrance of
Confirmation; and the old man had lost his while swimming across
the Pend d'Oreille River. He wanted another medal. 23
Nearly forty years after the establishment of the
80 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
mission, the Indians kept many of the beautiful prac-
tices of earlier days. In 1 8 8 1 :
At the midnight Mass, there were about four hundred and fifty com-
munions, and the church was filled to its utmost capacity. Besides
our own Indians, almost all the half-breeds were present with their
families. The pupils of the Sisters sang with such devotion, and so
well that they called to mind the angel choirs who chanted Gloria m
Excelsis, at Bethlehem. 24
The workaday life of the missionary of this period was
largely devoted to keeping the Indians as fervent as the
early Fathers had made them. This became more and
more difficult, owing to the proximity of the whites. It
was further complicated by the complaints of the whites
that they were being neglected by the priests. The only
reason they did not receive more attention was simply
because there were not enough missionaries to carry on
the work.
One suspects, also, that it was more consoling to work
with natives. Because of the many years of labor and
fatherly advice, the position of the priest among the
Indians was one to be envied. For the natives, as yet not
too corrupted by contact with the whites, the counsel
and direction of the missionary served as the last word.
In his dealings with the Indians the missionary had to
use the rein more than the spur. The whole life of each
Indian was centered around the church:
. . . they assemble at half past six o'clock every morning for prayer
and Mass. After Mass they are instructed in the catechism for a
quarter of an hour. The women and children attend another in-
struction of the same kind in the forenoon. In the evening about
sundown all assemble for evening prayer in the church, which is
preceded or followed by a third instruction. On Sundays they have
High Mass and a sermon at nine o'clock in the morning and they
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 8 1
assist at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament or the Way of the
Cross and an instruction in the afternoon. The great majority of
them approach the sacraments once a month, and many once or even
of tener than once a week. 25
There would hardly have been any white parish in those
rough and ready times where the pastor could have re-
quired such a regime.
If there were any complaints about the Indians, they
were complaints that the Indians were imprudently fer-
vent. Some of the tribes around St. Ignatius* had the
custom of public whipping for more serious sins, such as
slander, stealing, gambling, disorderly conduct during
prayers, and drunkenness. In spite of efforts to stop this
practice, the natives continued to observe it faithfully
until comparatively recent times.
The reception of the Sacraments was also highly es-
teemed. Sometimes the natives were almost too anxious
to summon the priest to have him administer the rites
for the dying:
There is a standing work of great labor for the missionary in attend-
ance upon the sick and dying; for as soon as an Indian begins to
feel unwell, he immediately summons the priest from a distance of
twenty, thirty or forty miles, and after having received the Sacra-
ments, he is perfectly calm and resigned to whatever may happen. 26
This happy state of affairs was not destined to endure.
The whites were coming into the country by the hun-
dreds. The lands of the Indians were more and more
encroached upon. James A. Garfield came to St. Igna-
tius' in 1872 as special commissioner to satisfy the long-
standing grievance of Chariot and his tribe against the
United States. Again, in 1883, there was a special com-
mission sent out by the government to calm troubles
82 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
that had arisen because of the proximity of the whites.
Gradually the Indians were tainted; certainly they were
not uplifted by the whites. Their religion and morals
declined; their Indian blood was weakened and lost by
intermarriage. As early as 1906, Father George de la
Motte, Superior-General of the Rocky Mountain Mission,
lamented:
Poor St. Ignatius! What a fiasco has our work been. 50 years of
work, and this is the result. Superstitious practices on the increase;
the Indians lazy, uncivilized, unequipped for the opening of the
Reservation, and little inclined to pray. They are doomed to a
speedy, wretched end. 10 years from now, a few ghastly remains of
the tribe will be sauntering around our premises to get a bite of
bread; the rest will have vanished out of existence, starved, crazed
by whiskey, shot by whites Thank God, some good has been done to
individuals, many children sent to heaven, many adults assisted to
Heaven, and a few have performed really good actions during life,
and given glory to our Lord. 27
Father de la Motte must have written this passage
when excessively discouraged by the manifest inroads
being made by the whites. Having sacrificed a brilliant
intellectual career to bring Christianity to these Indians,
he was terribly disheartened to see the dissipation and
waste of so much of the efforts of himself and his fol-
lowers. His dark thoughts and pessimistic forebodings
had sufficient foundation, for today St. Ignatius* has
practically become a country parish for whites and
mixed bloods, with only an occasional flash of its former
splendor.
The most solemn feasts of the year are the occasions
of Indian celebrations reminiscent of happier days in
the mission's history. Good Friday of 1924 saw the
touching "Christ Dead" procession:
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 8 3
At 7:30 on the evening of Good Friday the Indians gather in large
numbers in the church. In the sanctuary just below the large crucifix,
the work of one of the pioneer missionaries, there is placed a life size
statue of the dead Christ. The Stations of the cross are then con-
ducted in Flathead, the Indians singing the Stabat Mater in their
native tongue after each station. A sermon in Flathead follows.
After the sermon, the image of the crucified is taken down from the
cross, the crown of thorns is removed from the head, the nails from
the hands and feet. These instruments of the passion are placed on
trays and carried by four little Indian girls. Six stalwart Indians now
reverently lift and carry the figure of the dead Christ. A procession
forms. The cross bearer leads. Following him are the children of
the tribe, the boys carrying lanterns or torches, then the women with
a banner of the Blessed Virgin, and the men with a banner of the
Sacred Heart, Altar-boys, the four little handmaidens bearing the
crown of thorns and the nails, Flathead braves with the image of the
crucified, and lastly the priest vested in keeping with the ceremony.
On the afternoon of Good Friday, the Indians determine upon the
route of the procession, and heaps of wood are placed at intervals
along the road. As the procession starts, these bonfires and the
torches carried by the boys are lighted. It is an impressive sight. 28
The days of great Indian gatherings around the mis-
sion are finished. The redskin has been dispossessed and
outnumbered until now he has become a minority in his
own mission. One cannot but wonder how long it will
be before even these momentary glimpses of yesteryears
will disappear as the Indians take on more and more of
the "civilized" ways of the white man.
STATIONS SERVED FROM ST. IGNATIUS*
There remains to be sketched the third sphere of
activity in which the missionaries of St. Ignatius* were
engaged. From the central station of the mission, the
Jesuits radiated toward all the points of the compass in
exercising their ministry* Here it is possible to mention
only a few of those places where the Fathers labored.
84 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
The old records tell a brief but fascinating story of
constant travel. Two years after the transfer of the
mission, Father Menetrey visited the Flatheads at St.
Mary's. This journey in 1857 was the forerunner of the
reopening of the first mission of Montana. It is not
correct to consider St. Mary's as a station of St. Ignatius',
except in the sense that the occasional visits of the mis-
sionaries, during the sad years when the mission was
closed, kept alive the hopes of the Flatheads. St. Mary's
was actually reopened in 1866 under the guidance of
Father Ravalli and Brother Claessens. This cradle of
Catholicity was finally given up by the Jesuits in 1891,
when Chariot and his Flatheads moved to the Jocko
Reservation.
Chariot, the head chief of the Flatheads, had refused
to sign the treaty which provided for the removal of
his tribe from the Bitter Root Valley. For ten years this
noble Indian continued to resist forceful efforts to re-
move the tribe. Finally, in 1891, he weakened tempo-
rarily and moved to the Jocko Reservation. The next
year Father Philip Canestrelli and three Ursulines opened
a school for the emigrees. St. John Berchman's at Arlee
was conducted until 1897 when lack of funds forced
it to close.
Besides St. Mary's, other surrounding settlements saw
the Jesuit priests from St. Ignatius' come and go. Hell
Gate and Frenchtown were mission stations. The Jesuit
Fathers built the church in Hell Gate in 1863, and that
of Frenchtown in 1864. From Frenchtown the Fathers
worked in Missoula. As early as 1877, the people settled
there had presented a signed petition requesting a resi-
dent pastor, and their desire was satisfied at the first
possible opportunity. Neither were the mining camps
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 8 5
southwest of Missoula neglected. As early as 1862, the
traveling missionaries were in Bannack. After 1866,
these places were supplied by the Jesuits from St. Mary's.
With permission from the Holy See, the Jesuits re-
linquished Frenchtown to the Bishop of Helena in 1884.
It was a sign that this section of Montana had reached a
certain maturity. The Jesuits voluntarily turned over
what they had pioneered that it might be developed by
the diocesan clergy.
The country to the north and west of the mission was
not overlooked either. The Jesuits built a little church
in Plains in 1 8 89. About 1902, we find records of regular
visits to Thompson Falls, Bonner, Sanders, and Hamilton.
The question of a church at Crow Creek was discussed
in 1902. The Indians at Jocko and Arlee were always
well cared for by the Fathers from the mission.
The work of St. Ignatius 5 may be said to have been
extended by the work carried on from an offspring of
the mission St. Francis Xavier's, in Missoula. From
here the priests visited Stevensville, Lolo, Victor, Cor-
vallis, and Florence. In this last place Bishop Brondel
blessed the church which Father Diomedi had converted
from an old hall.
Some of these places reached a sufficient peak of de-
velopment to lose their mission status. Hence, in 1908,
the Jesuits again turned over to the care of the diocesan
priests the churches in Ravalli, Sanders, and Bonner. The
rugged work was finished; it was time for the Jesuits to
seek the less populous settlements.
Poison was blessed with a church in 1909. Twenty
years later, a new church was dedicated at Arlee. The
occasion was distinguished by the presence of many
notables. His Excellency, Bishop Fihnegan, Father "Wil-
8 6 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Ham Flynn, Secretary of the Marquette League, as well
as many octogenarian Indians who had been baptized
by De Smet, Ravalli, Giorda, and other pioneer black-
robes, were present.
The tradition begun by these courageous soldiers of
Christ lives today. In the history of the mission, the
Jesuits have pioneered and then, of their own accord,
have turned over their work to the care of the diocesan
priests; the Jesuits have served as helpers to zealous
Fathers of the Bishop's clergy; the Jesuits have acted as
temporary administrators when and where other men
could not be found. It is their joy to have done the work
where it had to be done.
ST. PETER'S MISSION
The third Jesuit mission in Montana was St. Peter's
among the Blackfoot tribe. The missionaries were to
labor among the Piegan and Bloods, the southern
branches of the Blackf eet, as well as the Assiniboins and
Gros Ventres.
It has been seen that De Smet visited this tribe when
he was returning from the mountains in 1840. Again,
in 1845, he tried to find the tribe to negotiate a treaty
between them and the Flatheads. Father Point labored
among these Indians in 1846-47 until he was recalled to
the Canadian mission. After Father Point's departure,
the Blackfeet were left without a missionary for several
years.
Two pioneers of the mission were commissioned to
found the new establishment in 1859. Father Hoecken
and Brother Magri followed the Indians for this whole
summer, keeping alert for a suitable spot on which to
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 87
build the mission. The first location was on the banks
of the Teton River near present Choteau, Montana.
There the Father and Brother built three log cabins
in which they spent the winter studying the language
and catechizing a few Indian children.
The first location proved unsatisfactory. Hence, on
March 13, 1860, two cabins were erected on the banks of
the Sun River, close to the future Fort Shaw. Then in
August of the same year, Father Nicholas Congiato or-
dered the suspension of building operations. The band
of missionaries was scattered. Father Hoecken returned
to the Missouri Province; Father Imoda and Brother
Magri returned to St. Ignatius' Mission.
The next year, 1861, Fathers Giorda and Imoda with
Brother de Kock were instructed to spend the winter at
Fort Benton. In the spring of 1862, they scoured the
country for an acceptable location. Their first choice of
a spot along the Marias River was tactfully disapproved
by the Indians who feared the dispersal of the buffalo
herds in this region if the mission were established here.
The missionaries sympathized sufficiently with these
fears to take up the search again.
The long years of instability apparently ended on
February 12, 1862, when the mission was established on
the north bank of the Missouri six miles above the mouth
of the Sun River. 29 Here at last the mission was built.
The trials and crosses which had attended the founda-
tion of the mission were not to go unrewarded, for many
blessings were showered on the spiritual labors carried on
from this post. Two months after the establishment of
the mission, Father Giorda baptized 134 Indian chil-
dren. 30 The life of the mission was to be short but filled
with many incidents.
8 8 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
The buildings were simple. There were seven cabins
built in a rectangle.
All the buildings are well matched, all of the same material, green
cottonwood logs, the same degree of finish; they were not squared
and the bark had not been removed. The walls were about 7 l /z ft,
high. The interstices and chinking were plastered with clay. The
roof was made of rails laid close together, overlaid with a heavy layer
of clay. There was no ceiling to any of the rooms; and as to floor,
we had, when the buildings were new[,] a most delightful velvet
carpet of very dense sod. When that carpet was worn out, as the
very best will do in time, we walked on a clay floor. 31
From this rustic home the missionaries went to visit the
tribes round about.
About 1862, the "gold rush" to Montana began. The
greater number of the searchers were attracted to the
Sun River Country, but many drifted to the Missouri,
near the mission. In spite of all past experiences, the
Blackfeet still thought they could stem the flow of the
hated whites into the country that had been Indian from
time immemorial. Guerrilla warfare by the Indians and
bloody reprisals by the whites became the order of the
day. Few questions were asked, nor were nice distinc-
tions or delicate discrimination shown on either side.
It was inevitable that the missionaries should become
involved on one side or the other. There was no neu-
trality in the minds of others even if the Fathers tried to
maintain such a position.
Father Kuppens visited the Indians at their camp,
thirty miles below Fort Benton, in the winter of 186J-
66. Here he learned from a personal friend that the
Indians considered the blackrobes as white men, to be
treated as they intended to treat all the whites. The
crisis developed rapidly.
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 89
John B. Morgan, a squaw man, lived near die mission.
He had entertained at least f our Piegans in his house
long enough to have a band of white men capture the
Indians while they were eating at his table. The natives
were hanged from trees on Morgan's property and their
bodies thrown into the river through a hole in the ice.
This treacherous killing was immediately reported to the
tribe. There would be revenge.
Morgan begged the Fathers, a short time later, to allow
him to live at the mission, owing to the generally un-
settled conditions in the surrounding country. The In-
dians suspected Morgan and naturally came to suspect
the priests who were, unwittingly enough, sheltering the
wretch. Day by day the manifestations of distrust to-
ward the missionaries became more frequent. Mission
cattle were shot down or wounded and, finally, John
Fitzgerald, the herder for the mission, was shot dead
scarcely a quarter of a mile from the house.
Father Giorda was summoned from the mining camps
where he had been laboring. With tears in his eyes, he
ordered the mission to be removed. This sad chain of
events only forced a more hurried evacuation to a new
site about midway between the Dearborn and Sun rivers,
where a new mission, already under construction for
some time, was nearly ready. "On April 27, 1866, we
abandoned St. Peter's Mission on the Missouri, on the
same day we opened the mission at Bird Tail Rock. The
next day we closed this mission temporarily/' 32
What seems to be a quite peculiar manner of acting
becomes very rational when we read:
During our short journey to the new place we saw several parties
of Indians and whites on the warpath, and it was evident that
whiskey had set their brains afire. 38
90 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
These war parties were sufficient reason for occupying
the new mission for only one night.
While the mission was closed, the tribes were visited by
the Fathers from Helena. It was not until 1874 that it
was reopened. During these dark years, Father C. Imoda
remained faithful to his flock. As his assistants this zeal-
ous missionary had Father Philip Rappagliosi and, some-
what later, Father Joseph Guidi.
The hordes of white settlers had caused the United
States Government further to restrict the reservation of
the Blackfoot and consequently, St. Peter's was now
sixty miles from the Indians. To make matters worse,
the reservation was handed over to the Methodists, a turn
of events which made it impossible for the priests to
exercise their ministry within the confines of the reser-
vation.
The Fathers Imoda, Peter Prando, and Rappagliosi
devised means of bringing spiritual nourishment to the
natives. Rappagliosi was to burn out his life in two
short years in his relentless pursuit of souls. He had
come among the tribe in the winter of 1 876. The next
months of his life he spent following the tribe
... in the most inclement seasons of the year. Fording rivers, thread-
ing forests, sleeping in the open air exposed to constant attacks from
hostile tribes and wild beasts was the monotonous programme on
these occasions. A f aggotfire, the scanty provender of the Red man
with no end of childish talk and uncouth manners made things
agre[e]able (?) for the Black-gown and helped to keep body and
soul together. Even "at home" on the Reservation, his accommoda-
tions and bill of fare were only such as the woods could furnish.
Buffalo robes served the double purpose of overcoat and counterpane
while the ground figured as a substitute for spring-mattress and
dinner table. Berries, roots, dried meat and the chance game of the
hunt with plenty of sweet, fresh water from mountain springs made
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA $ 1
up a menu favorable to digestion, indeed, but one that an Epicure
would not be apt to enthuse over. 34
In 1877, there was famine among the Indians which
forced them
... to go in search of buffaloes killed the winter before and which
out of their abundance, they had left upon the plains to rot. These
they brought home with them rejoicing and devoured with an appe-
tite which only a starving man possesses. 85
Rappagliosi was living with the tribe at the time. No
wonder that his health broke under the strain and that
this zealous priest died on February 7, 1878.
Such a story of suffering is not unusual for men labor-
ing in so trying a situation. Yet, in spite of the opposi-
tion of the Indian agent and despite the lethargy of the
natives, the mission progressed. A school for boys was
built, and from 1855 to 1879 there were 2,732 baptisms
recorded at St. Peter's, to say nothing of 686 baptisms
and 55 marriages performed by Father Prando in his
small chapel on Birch Creek at the southern edge of the
reservation.
Father Prando's first convert had been a medicine
woman, advanced in years. She was very skilled in the
use of herbs and roots as remedies almost too skilled.
Yet, she freely renounced all dealing that she might have
had with the evil one before her baptism:
Just before the pouring of the water, when I was stretching out my
hand to place it on her head, she began to tremble from head to
foot with great terror. After Baptism she became tranquil in body,
and her face was very calm. 86
Prando was very successful in his work with the
whites as well as with the Indians, but the latter were his
92 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
chief concern. He realized that something must be
done for the material uplift of the tribe if he ever hoped
to convert them. It is very difficult to think clearly on
any point if one is starving, for the pangs of hunger are
more insistent than any other human appetite. In the
summer of 1881, Prando wrote: "The Blackfeet are sunk
in want and misery, and, in my opinion, they will have
trouble in getting through this winter without dying of
hunger." 37
The Father was a true prophet. He was able to describe
the condition of these unfortunate people in a letter he
wrote in February, 1884:
There was so much talk and so much noise in the newspapers about
the deplorable condition of these poor creatures, but till now they
received no help. And this year the effects of famine are making
themselves felt horribly and the savages are dying rapidly. There is
in addition a contagious sickness called erysipelas, which makes the
throat and face swell up and in four or five days they die. There
have been about twenty cases in this place. And between those that
die of hunger and those who die of erysipelas, each day there is some-
one dead, some days there are as many as four. One would have to
have a heart of stone, or none at all, not to have compassion on them
in entering their dwellings. Indeed, we can say that two-thirds of
the tribe are diseased now. What a pity it is to see little boys and
girls, with their small faces pale and emaciated, with languid eyes,
and at an age when they should be happy, experiencing sorrow and
consumption. 88
The missionary was in an especially difficult position
since the dying Indians could thank the white man for
the famine. The rapacity of the Indian agents is now a
fact generally known, so one may honestly agree with
Father Prando that these men must have had no hearts
to be able to watch the Indians die for lack of food, the
sale of which was making them wealthy. How was the
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 93
missionary to explain the conduct of such men to an
Indian starving to death in his filthy hut?
Furthermore, the introduction of liquor among the
Indians probably worked even greater havoc than the
rapacity of the agents. Occasionally, one of these agents
would admit the disastrous consequences of whiskey to
the Indians:
It is needless to dilate upon the disastrous and demoralizing effects
to the Indian of the whiskey trade. Robes, blankets, horses every-
thing is sacrificed to whiskey, and when reduced to utter poverty
the Indian steals, and the result is war with the whites. 39
These are not the words of a discouraged missionary,
although they might have been; they constitute part of
a matter-of-fact report made by an Indian agent to
his superior. Notwithstanding such sorely detrimental
factors the mission went forward.
The Ursuline Sisters came in 1884 to open a school for
girls. Ten years later there were four flourishing schools
at the mission. The Ursulines had a boarding school for
Indian boys and one for white boys. These boys' depart-
ments were closed and dispersed when government sub-
sidies ceased in 1 895.
The Jesuits left the mission in 1898. The buildings
that had been erected under great handicaps were handed
over to the Ursuline Sisters for use as schools, thus ending
another chapter of the story, a chapter written with
incredible labor and suffering.
St. Peter's Mission probably was one of the most im-
portant of all the Montana foundations because of the
work which was begun from there and continued even
after St. Peter's ceased to be a Jesuit establishment. Fort
94 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Benton was one of the earliest stations visited by the
Jesuits working in the Blackfoot country. After the
establishment of St. Peter's, Fort Benton became a regu-
lar station of the mission. Here Father Imoda built the
chapel of the Immaculate Conception in 1878-79. This
church was given to the diocesan clergy the following
year. Three years later, Fort Benton became the charge
of Father Frederick Eberschweiler, S J. His accounts of
Fort Benton are an extended lamentation. He was work-
ing in the "seaport of Montana," the head of navigation
on the Missouri. To this spot came the dregs of hu-
manity, and these made up his flock.
The soldiers at Fort Shaw, Fort Maginnis, and Fort
Assiniboin profited from visits made by the priests. Sun
River, Dearborn, and Judith Basin were also cared for
by the missionaries from St. Peter's.
In a few years, the new communities that had sprung
up in the surrounding country were added to the roster
of congregations supplied from St. Peter's. The Catho-
lics in Mitchell, Craig, Wolfcreek, Augusta, Florence,
Choteau, and Lewistown, to mention but a few, were
added to those among whom the Jesuits exercised their
ministry. Great Falls in its early days was also supplied
by Jesuits from St. Peter's and later by those from
Helena.
There were, besides the numerous stations just listed,
three others which grew into full-fledged parishes or
missions, and in turn were the parent stocks for smaller
stations. These three which deserve a more lengthy study
were Helena, Holy Family Mission among the Blackfoot
Indians, and St. Paul's Mission among the Assiniboin and
Gros Ventre tribes.
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 95
HELENA
Catholic beginnings in the Helena neighborhood go
back to 1863, when Father Giorda visited Virginia City,
then known as Alder Gulch. This spot was to become
famous because of a rich strike; thousands were to flock
there in search of gold.
When Father Giorda visited Virginia City for the first
time, it was a typical boom town. Prices were high and
living higher:
A few days after his arrival, some Catholic gentlemen went about
among the miners and collected quite a purse of gold dust the only
currency there at the time and brought it to him. The apostolic
man cordially thanked those good people for their kindness, but told
them at the same time that he had come after souls, not after gold,
and declined to accept the offering. They politely told him that
before leaving camp he would surely need some wherewithal to pay
his board, and for the care of his mount and pack animal, but he
could not be persuaded to accept the purse.
A few days after, when about to leave, he found to his dismay
that the bill for his board and the care of his two horses had mounted
into the hundreds, and he had hardly one copper in his possession.
The gentlemen, who had foreseen all this, were ready and but too
willing to relieve him of his embarrassment. They paid the bill. 40
Father Giorda had learned that it took money to save
souls in a mining camp of those days.
The fall of 1864 saw Father Giorda working at Silver
Creek, near present Helena. Father Kuppens built a
chapel there in December of the same year, and during
the winter he ministered to the faithful in Montana City,
Jefferson, and the Boulder Valley. Visits to Helena by
the Jesuits began after Easter, 1865. Periodically through
the year Father Giorda or Father Kuppens went there to
celebrate Mass and administer the sacraments. During
96 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
these early visits the house of some good Catholic family
was used for services.
Soon after St. Peter's Mission was closed in April,
1866, Father Kuppens was at Helena. When he left for
St. Ignatius', he carried a petition of the people request-
ing Father Grassi to appoint two resident priests for the
town:
We will make no effort [read the plea] to give expression to the
situation in which we find ourselves in being so much isolated from
the comforts and consolations of our Holy & beloved Faith, but we
trust that you will sufficiently consider the want under which we
labor. 41
Their desire was satisfied. Fathers Kuppens and D'Aste
were sent to Helena and Father James Vanzina to Vir-
ginia City. The little church which the people of Helena
had built during the year was blessed on November 1,
1866, by the newly arrived Fathers. On December 28,
a document was duly drawn up and signed:
... at a public meeting of the Catholics of Helena, held on the fourth
day of November eighteen hundred and sixty six, it was proposed
and unanimously carried that the church just then completed and
dedicated to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary should forever
belong to and be under the charge of the Society of Jesuits. . . . 42
The following year the Jesuits received the ratification
of this resolution from His Excellency, James O'Gorman,
Bishop of Omaha, to establish themselves in Helena. The
prelate wrote:
I give you my authority, as far as it goes, ... for the establishment
of the Order in the country and I think Fd not confer a greater
favour on Montana than by assenting to establish such an institu-
tion in the country. 48
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 97
With this encouraging permission of the Bishop, the
Jesuits took up their work. As time went on, the Fathers
became very popular with the people and were greatly
revered by them. Many interesting tales are told of these
years spent with the vigorous and sometimes vicious gold
seekers. The lives of the priests had few dull moments
and were usually full and interesting, as only life in such
a place may be.
The constant growth of the town finally made it ob-
vious that Sisters to teach the Catholic girls were needed.
The aging Father De Smet was asked to use his influence
to obtain a band of Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth.
He was successful. The five pioneers arrived in Helena
on October 10, 1869. The next year they opened St.
Vincent's Academy.
The congregation grew so rapidly that it was neces-
sary to begin the construction of a new church in 1874.
Despite the terrible depression of the next year, the
church was pushed to completion by April 9, 1876. The
log-cabin days were passed. The new building was of
stone and brick with granite facing. The need for money
to complete the construction during the depression made
it necessary to mortgage the property, but these mort-
gages were retired by January, 1883.
On July 2, 1883, His Excellency, John B. Brondel,
Bishop of Victoria, Vancouver Island, and first admini-
strator of the vicariate of Montana, arrived in Helena.
He visited his new vicariate to discover its spiritual
needs and to determine the best location for his perma-
nent residence. Helena was naturally the most suitable.
Since the Jesuits were the first and only priests there
from the time of its establishment, they offered to with-
draw and turn over to the new administrator the church
98 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
premises, and whatever property rights they had ac-
quired on Catholic Hill. The deed of transfer is dated
May 5, 1884. By this action the Jesuits had facilitated
and hastened the erection of the new bishopric.
For freely relinquishing the fifty-thousand-dollar
holdings in Helena, the Jesuits were given
. . . the right, possession and deed of all the property of the white
Mission in Missoula City valued at about $4,000 (four thousand
dollars), and the right to establish a mission for whites and possess
it, on the N. P. RR. at a point near the Crow Indians. 44
The mission for the whites near the Crow Indians was
to be established that the Jesuits might gain some prestige
among the natives, since the Indians belittled the black-
robes unless it was obvious that they had some position
among their white brothers. To supply this need the
Bishop offered the Jesuits the care of the parish in Bill-
ings but this had to be refused for lack of men to staff it.
The year 1884 marks the end of Jesuit labors in
Helena, even though Bishop Brondel had written:
After mature deliberation I believe that it would never do to keep
the Fathers away altogether from Helena. So I hope that when the
time comes for the Fathers to leave the parish that they will have a
school on the college grounds. 45
This desire of the good Bishop was not to be satisfied.
Three years after the Jesuits relinquished Helena to
the Bishop, the Jesuit Superior, Father Joseph Cataldo,
was deluged with petitions to open a college under direc-
tion of the Society of Jesus. The requests, one signed by
the diocesan clergy and another by the people of Helena,
were not summarily dismissed. It was only after careful
consultation that the petition had to be denied. It was
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 99
impossible to staff Gonzaga College, which was to be
opened in Spokane in the fall of 1887, and another col-
lege in Helena. Again the work of the Jesuits was
finished. They departed for new fields of labor.
Helena, as the other Montana missions, had also been
the center from which the faith was spread. Deer Lodge
had been visited by Father Giorda until 1866. Even be-
fore this year Butte, Silver Bow, and Hot Springs were
attended by the Jesuits from St. Peter's Mission working
in the vicinity of Helena. Cave Gulch and Diamond City
also profited by the ministrations of these itinerant sol-
diers of Christ.
When Helena itself was little more than an infant mis-
sion, it became the center for excursions to Crow Creek,
Bozeman, Fort Ellis, Gallatin Valley, and Beaver Creek.
This list of stations increased when St. Peter's Mission
was closed in 1866, for St. Peter's itself was served from
Helena. By 1874, the Missouri Valley, Radersburg,
Three Forks, and White Sulphur Springs were fields of
labor for the Helena priests. Father Menetrey brought
the sacraments to the faithful in Unionville, Clancy,
Canyon Ferry, and Marysville. This same zealous priest
built St. Joseph's church in Canton in 1875-76. Father
Lawrence Palladino was able to inform Cataldo that the
church at Boulder was nearly finished by May 3 1, 1 8 8 1 , 46
The names just listed mean little unless one studies the
map of Helena and the surrounding country. North,
south, east, and west the Fathers had ridden. They
preached the gospel to all the nations of their little
world. In the end, by request and by desire, their
churches and flocks were relinquished. Their field of
labor had ceased to be a mission; therefore, their work
was finished.
100 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
HOLY FAMILY MISSION
When St. Peter's Mission was reopened in 1874, it was
found to be sixty miles from the newly restricted Black-
foot Reservation. If, therefore, any work was to be
done among these Indians, the missionaries would have
to go to them, for the natives could not come to the
mission. However, since this reservation had been com-
mitted to the Methodists under Grant's "peace policy,"
the prohibition of all Catholic missionaries within the
confines of the reserve made it necessary to seek other
ways of accomplishing the work. Father Rappagliosi
died in 1878, worn out by his incessant travels under-
taken to bring the gospel to the Blackf eet. A new man-
ner of approach in the evangelization of the tribe was
introduced when Father Peter Prando made his first
visit to them in May, 1881. From the first, Father
Prando realized that no permanent good could be ac-
complished unless there was a regular mission and a resi-
dent priest with the tribe. Consequently, he built a log
hut thirty-six feet square which was without door or
windows. This miserable shack was located on the south
bank of Birch Creek, the boundary of the reservation.
Simply by crossing the creek, the Father would be on the
forbidden land.
Soon after the completion of this little hut, the germ
out of which was to grow Holy Family Mission, Father
Prando was summoned to his home mission of St. Peter's.
Here he was detained until May, 1882. The story of his
return to the Blackf eet at Birch Creek is very interesting:
I had foreseen that my prolonged absence from the Indians might
have caused great dissatisfaction among them, and as they had
repeatedly sent for me, they might easily conclude that I had little
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 101
affection for them, and tell me on my arrival that I might go away
just as empty-handed as I came.
Anticipating this difficulty, I went to Helena and bought the
biggest pipe I could procure. The stem was about three feet long, so
that the smoker would require the assistance of some one to light it
for him. Now here is the way I reasoned with myself. As soon as the
Indians see me, they'll gather around me, and comment on my big
pipe, and grow envious with the desire of getting a puff from it.
As soon as I let them have their smoke, we'll all be friends again.
My expedient was a childish one, it is true, but after all, the Indians
are but children. 47
In the end the experiment was completely successful;
the good priest had foreseen exactly the reactions of the
Indians. He was received with the greatest admiration
as the Indians "watched the volumes of smoke, clouding
the air." This is one of those innumerable little incidents
we find in the life of Father Prando.
The Blackfeet also had a great love for the romantic
and an appreciation of the dramatic. This the clever
priest knew well and often used to his own advantage.
Once when trying to impress upon his listeners the
necessity of fidelity to one wife and the abandonment of
polygamy, he acted out his instructions graphically:
... I called for a large knife and putting it like a sword in my cinc-
ture, I told them that the Black Robe had orders from the Son of God
to take the sword and, going among those who had many wives, to
separate them. Then, knife in hand I added, "for this have I come
among you, to separate you in the name of God from your many
wives. But as you are aware; my knife is not the one you behold;
it is the commandment of God. For the moment, I know this separa-
tion gives you pain; but what will be your joy hereafter, when you
will be the friends of God and forever happy in heaven!'* My words
pleased them and they greatly approved my oratorical device. 48
Under the skillful guidance of this resourceful and
beloved missionary, the little log-hut mission at Birch
1 02 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Creek prospered. Hence, when in 1885, Father Joseph
Cataldo, Superior-General of the missions, asked permis-
sion of the United States Government to erect buildings
"for Indian schools and mission work among the Indians
belonging to the Blackf eet, Fort Peck and Crow Agen-
cies, on their respective reservations," 49 the authorization
was granted.
The new Holy Family Mission was built on Two Medi-
cine Creek, a more central location than that at Birch
Creek. The money for the buildings was supplied by
Mother Katherine Drexel, whose benefactions to the
Indians only God can reckon. The mission was ready for
occupation by August, 1890. The girls' school was con-
ducted by the Ursulines with no little success; the boys'
school was supervised by the Jesuits. Both establishments
prospered until the withdrawal of government aid in
1899 made matters difficult. Without the help of Mother
Drexel it is not hard to surmise what would have been
the fate of the schools.
Still, these first years were not without fruit. From
1890 to 1895, there were 66 5 baptisms, 65 marriages,
and 127 confirmations. This spiritual harvest was not
garnered at the mission only, but in long rides through
the Blackfoot country by the traveling missionaries.
This was not an easy mission.
Holy Family had difficulties with the Indian children
in school just as had the other missions. These children of
the plains were not fascinated by sitting in a schoolroom
day in and day out:
New Years day [1892], several of our pupils were taken from school
by their parents. I complained to the agent. He, Protestant though
he be, showed more than mere words of sympathy. Not only did he
send his police to apprehend the deserters, but he also held back the
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 103
parents* requisitions for provisions from the Government. Thanks
to such measures these escapades have almost ceased entirely. 50
There were still other qualities in the Indians which
made life very trying for the missionaries. The greatest
Indian fault was lying and deception. Father Peter
Bougis tells of one unimportant, but revealing, incident
which shows the point clearly:
Brother is looking for about a hundred head of cattle. We need six
steers; tomorrow, is the day for butchering. There is a man at Milk
River who promised six steers for 1050 francs. Since he is slow in
bringing them here, I sent Brother to find out the reason for the de-
lay. Brother lost his way. He returned shortly [.] Friday evening
he reached the merchant's cabin after a ride of almost 40 miles. The
seller told him that the steers were 5 miles farther on. Brother started
out at a gallop, but found nothing [.] He spent the night riding,
without food, without a moment's sleep and returned the next day
without dinner, and more dead than alive. 51
This struggle against grievous and petty annoyances
went on unceasingly. Yet, the missionary could write:
I am truly happy. My position here is not easy, and I feel I will be
soon worn out. Moreover, because of the surroundings, the disper-
sion of the savages, their character, the climate and so forth, this
mission will always be a very trying post. In closing I can say I have
suffered much. 52
This pithy summary of Holy Family Mission Father
Bougis had begun by writing j'en suis fort content. In
the face of trials he was joyful. The actual history of this
mission is told better in terms of the men who worked
with this same spirit, fen suis fort content, because the
tangible results of their labor among the Blackf eet were
never impressive.
The buildings of the girls' school burned in 1898. They
104 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
were replaced by substantial sandstone structures. The
stone was quarried from neighboring hills. This fire was
only one of a long series of trials and difficulties.
Crops were poor, for the land was very mediocre.
When crops promised well, the weather failed. Early
rains, early frosts, long winters, dry summers, strong
winds all seemed to conspire against the zealous Fathers
and Sisters. Food had to be shipped in. Fuel had to be
brought in. Supplies were stolen from the mission. In-
deed, it would be difficult to find a more extended series
of misfortunes. Yet the mission continued.
The wearying work was broken, in 1910, by the visit
of the renowned Dutch philologist and ethnologist, C. C.
Uhlenbeck. Professor Uhlenbeck spent four months
collecting data for his later works on Blackf oot customs
and language. The missionaries were of great help to him
as we gather from his own words:
Though I was recommended by the Dutch Government and by the
Royal Academy of Amsterdam, the American authorities did not do
very much to facilitate my connections with the Indians, and my
linguistic investigations among them. The more I appreciate the
generous help, I received from the Reverend Fathers of the Holy
Family Mission, the more I am grateful for the true friendship, which
was shown to me by some educated members of the noble Piegan
tribe. 53
The years of experience of the missionaries had not been
entirely in vain.
The recent years of the mission's history were little
different than those that had gone before. Spiritually,
it was a struggle because the Indians could not be brought
together in one spot, since there was no land fertile
enough to support a large band. Materially, it was even
more desperate, for the reservation lands were of the
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 105
poorer soil of Montana, with no water for irrigation
where irrigation was badly needed. Finally, in 1936-37
an ambitious program was undertaken to rebuild and re-
pair the mission which had become considerably run-
down during many lean years. The large indebtedness
incurred by these operations forced the abandonment
of Holy Family Mission in 1940. So another tragic end-
ing was written to many years of disheartening toil
against countless odds.
Holy Family also had its stations visited by itinerant
missionaries. Briefly, the stations of this mission were
definite places among the Blackfoot tribe where the
Fathers celebrated Mass and administered the sacraments.
Little Badger Creek and Heart Butte are among the first
places mentioned by the Fathers. During the summer of
1902 one of the missionaries, while riding along Little
Badger Creek, saw an Indian tepee. On account of the
superstitious charms that were hanging outside the wig-
wam he judged that someone inside was sick. He found
an Indian woman very near death. So successfully did
he speak to her of the next life, that she renounced her
idolatrous charms and prayed to the true God and His
Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary. The same hour she was
baptized and anointed, and the following day she died. 54
Thus, in a few simple words is described a conquest for
Christ.
By 1910, there were churches at Heart Butte and
Browning. Besides these, the missionaries visited Birch
Creek, the original location of the mission, "White Tail,
Black Tail, and Badger. Later on, Goldstone, near the
Canadian line, and Rudyard were visited from Holy
Family. The Jesuits ceased working in Browning in
106 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
1916, when they willingly turned over this parish to His
Excellency, the Bishop of Helena.
These outlying stations were tended by the Jesuits
until Holy Family was closed. In 1928, Bishop Finnegan
of Helena confirmed four hundred during his tour of
the Blackfoot Reservation. This same year Father
Thomas Grant appealed to the Bureau of Catholic Indian
Missions to help him build new chapels at Little Badger
and at Old Agency. Now, with the parent mission
closed, the stations are supplied by the Jesuits working
at St. Peter Claver Church, Heart Butte. Holy Family
Mission, the mission of heroic sacrifices, is gone, but the
work begun there long ago still continues.
ST. PAUL'S MISSION AMONG THE ASSINIBOINS
AND THE GROS VENTRES
The third important offspring of St. Peter's was St.
Paul's Mission, founded among the Assiniboins and Gros
Ventres. Father Peter De Smet was the first missionary
to travel through their country. Father Point passed
through the same territory in 1 846-47, when he worked
among the Blackfeet. In 1862 Father Giorda came from
Fort Benton and spent a few weeks before Easter with
these Indians and during this time he baptized 134, most
of whom were children. Under Grant's Indian policy,
Fort Belknap Reservation was given over to the care of
the Methodist ministers. Though nothing was ever done
by this denomination on Belknap Reservation, yet, the
Catholic missionaries were forbidden entry. Actually,
the Fathers made occasional trips in the forbidden terri-
tory to bring the consolation of religion to the faithful.
Father Rappagliosi died in 1878 while on such a trip.
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 107
Some picture of the conditions existing at the time may
be gathered from the official government reports:
Certain it is, that affairs at this agency [Milk River Agency] were
grossly mismanaged, it being made a rendezvous for whisky dealers
and illicit traders of all descriptions. ... I discovered how matters had
been conducted there; provisions sent for issue to the Indians were
traded to them for robes and furs, and whisky openly traded at the
post, and Government property squandered and sold in the most
barefaced manner. 55
The next year Father Urban Grassi had made a brief visit
to these tribes. Fathers Joseph Damiani and Joseph
Bandini continued these scattered visits until 1884. Such
was the early history of St. Paul's Mission.
Father Frederick Eberschweiler was appointed mis-
sionary to the Assiniboins and Gros Ventres in Septem-
ber, 188 J. "At one of his visits to the garrison [at] Ft.
Assiniboin, Indians told him that they greatly wished
that a mission be founded for them." 56
Father Eberschweiler wrote to President Cleveland
asking permission to erect a mission and school building
on the reservation belonging to the Fort Belknap Agency.
The official letter granting the permission came in No-
vember, 1885. On December 8, Father occupied the log
cabin which was to serve as the first church built on Fort
Belknap Reservation. He spent that winter studying the
Assiniboin language and translating the catechism and
prayers into the native tongue.
This mission was only temporary in character, for the
wiser Indians wanted a permanent establishment near
Peoples Creek in a beautiful valley of the Little Rockies.
Before he committed himself Father Eberschweiler
wanted to see the proposed land. He reports, May 2,
1886, what he saw:
108 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
I just this evening returned from the "Little Rockies," and hasten
to write this for the mail of tomorrow. I only can compare that
most beautiful country with the promised land where milk and
honey flows. I wished you had seen it. St. Peter's Mission is a good
place for a Mission, but it is just nothing in comparison with that
place I have seen now. The cattle country with grazing land: the
best I ever saw. Timber: that whole mountain range is thickly cov-
ered from the bottom to the top of the mountains. Water: seven
beautiful creeks, running into the Milk River, clear as crystal, sweet
as honey. Cultivating land; at all the creeks, but especially at
"Peoples Creek"; at least 15 miles long remaining near the mountains
is a deep, wide valley of the best garden-land, enough to make the
whole tribe here very rich and happy. 57
This was too good to miss. Father Eberschweiler drew up
a petition which the Indians signed asking the President
of the United States to transfer to the Little Rockies
those members of the tribes who wished to go. The
petition was favorably received by Congress, who de-
cided that all should be settled by a treaty. This treaty
was duly executed by a commission on January 21, 1887.
Not only were the Indians moved as they desired, and
lines of the new reservation determined, but it was also
provided:
That the Secretary of the Interior may, in his discretion, set apart a
tract of land, within said reservation, not to exceed one hundred and
sixty acres in extent, for the establishment and maintenance of an
Indian mission and industrial school, under the auspices of the Society
of Jesus, to include the site of their present mission buildings; but
such privilege shall not debar or exclude other religious societies from
establishing Indian missions and schools within said reservation, under
direction of the Secretary of the Interior. 68
This single treaty gave unusual stability to the whole
enterprise from its very inception; the natives were se-
cure and the mission had indisputable right to its prop-
erty.
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 109
The same spring of 1886, when Father Eberschweiler
had gone to look over the property in the Little Rockies,
he tried to find a contractor at Fort Benton who would
put up the buildings, but in this he was not successful.
A war had broken out between the Fort Belknap Indians
and the Bloods; hence, no white man would risk his scalp
in the Peoples Creek country. Moreover, it was impos-
sible to buy lumber and other building material because
of the long distance such things would have to be
freighted. Finally, Father found some gold miners in the
Little Rockies who took the contract to erect large log
houses as a residence for the missionary, a church,
schools, and dwellings for pupils and Sisters. Work was
begun; logs were cut in the near woods, the foundations
and basement were made. The cornerstone was laid on
the fifteenth of September, 1886. During the whole of
that winter the unfinished buildings were left deserted,
but the summer of 1887 saw the work resumed when
the lumber, which had been ordered the preceding fall,
finally arrived. This same summer peace was restored
between the Assiniboins and Bloods. Thus the Indians
were in a mood to take advantage of the new mission
when it was completed on September 1 J, 1887, one year
after it was begun.
The Ursuline Sisters had arrived the day before to take
charge of the girls' school. Owing to arrangements com-
pleted in the summer of 1887, the school had a certain
amount of government support from its very begin-
ning. Both the boys* and girls' departments of the school
flourished. There were 160 pupils supported by the gov-
ernment in 1894, with many more actually in attend-
ance.
The system followed in the schools was the same as
1 1 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
that in the other Catholic contract schools. There were
special problems at St. Paul's by reason of the long-
standing degradation of the tribe and the perfect willing-
ness on the part of parents to see this condition perpetu-
ated. This state of affairs was so notorious that even the
government officials welcomed the mission school be-
cause of its possible uplifting effect on the grossly im-
moral Indians, 59 But these hopes for improved condi-
tions were to be realized only after terrible trials and
disappointments.
The fruits of the labors of the Fathers and Sisters
began to appear as the mission became more and more
firmly established. From 1898 to 1901 there were one
hundred and ninety-three baptisms, twenty-one mar-
riages, and seven marriages blessed. This, too, was the
period during which a new stone church, a stone resi-
dence, and a school were erected for the Sisters and girls
by a wealthy friend of Father Charles Mackin. These
substantial improvements, added to the stone school
building for the boys built previously by Father Balthas-
sar Feusi, were definitely encouraging to the missionaries
who were working in a difficult field. The troubles at
St. Paul's scarcely ever came from material needs, for the
mission was actually located in a spot abundantly blessed.
Here the heartbreaks came to the missionaries in the
early days rather from the background of the Indians
and from the horrible examples given them by the
whites. However, by 1910, the Gros Ventres had be-
come, with very few exceptions, a Catholic tribe. The
Assiniboins were Catholic and Protestant.
The recent years at the mission have been given over
to retaining what had been gained. This is especially
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 1 1 1
true of the schools. The Sisters have been working under
great handicaps since their school was destroyed by fire
in 1931. Yet, in 1933, there were 120 in the boarding
school. Even more recently, the schools have been con-
verted into day schools to avoid the crushing expense of
feeding so many Indian charges. Here the struggle con-
tinues for the salvation of as many children as possible
for the faith.
Today the mission is not as prosperous and attractive
as of old but the important fact is that the Fathers are
still among the Indians of St. Paul's, working for them
and remembering them when so many seem to have for-
gotten.
This mission was also a center for expansion, for it
was from here the Fathers traveled to outlying districts.
The Catholics at Fort Belknap, the Lower Assiniboins at
Fort Peck, the Assiniboins at Lodge Pole, the miners at
Zortman all received and profited from the ministries
of the tireless priests. Chinook, Glasgow, and Milk River
were also on the itinerary of the Jesuits living at St.
Paul's.
The most important station of St. Paul's, if we judge
from its subsequent development, was Havre. In 1890
the Bishop of Helena divided the missionary district
which formerly had been tended solely by Father Fred-
erick Eberschweiler, S. J. Under the new plan, the Jesuits
from St. Paul's cared for one portion of the newly di-
vided territory and the other portion, which included
the whole Milk River district, was tended by the pioneer
missionary, Father Eberschweiler. For the first five years
after the division, Father Eberschweiler worked from
Fort Benton, and then for ten years Chinook served as
1 12 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
his headquarters. It was in 1903 that the aging priest
took up his residence in Havre, newly constituted a
parish. Three years earlier, he had rebuilt the church in
Havre after a severe storm had destroyed the original
structure. Consequently, Father Eberschweiler was no
stranger in a strange land, nor was it surprising that the
parish flourished under his paternal care.
In later years, long after the founder of the parish had
gone to receive his reward for a life well spent, Havre
became the center of an extended mission field. Occa-
sionally there were as many as fifteen outlying districts
that depended on the priests of Havre for Mass and the
sacraments. Among these districts were the following:
Chester, Dunkirk, Devon, Gildf ord, and Kremlin. Grad-
ually some of these places grew enough to warrant a
resident pastor. The desire of the people was satisfied by
their bishop as one by one these parishes passed from the
Jesuits to the diocese.
The story of Jesuit labors in this part of Montana ends
with this sketch of Havre. Far back across the span of
years, St. Peter's Mission had been opened among the
Piegans and Bloods; from this stock Holy Family Mis-
sion among the Blackfeet had sprung; from the same
stock had come St. Paul's among the Gros Ventres and
Assiniboins; from the same stock had come Havre, and
with this last we have reached well across central Mon-
tana. As the line of advance moved east, the country
to the north and south was being explored, occupied, and
conquered. It has been an advance replete with trials,
tragedies, and triumphs which here merely have been
touched upon. It has been the story of the Jesuits open-
ing new country as shock troops of the Church.
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 113
ST. FRANCIS XAVIER'S MISSION AMONG THE CROWS
The mission among the Crow Indians was one of the
later foundations in Montana. Actually, there had been
a few Jesuits working sporadically for the salvation of
this tribe since De Smet first met them on his way back
to St. Louis in 1840:
I rode with this tribe for two days; they had plenty of everything,
and according to their custom were passing the time in feasts and
rejoicings. Since I hide nothing from you, I hope you will not be
scandalized at learning that in a single afternoon I took part in
twenty different banquets; hardly was I seated in one lodge, when
somebody would come and call me to another. But as my stomach
was not as accommodating as those of the Indians, I satisfied myself
with tasting their messes. . . . 60
The good missionary did more than gracefully avoid eat-
ing of these Indian feasts, for he tells us, "I took a favor-
able occasion to speak to them upon various points of
religion/' There were no conversions among the tribe
during this brief meeting.
Again in 1842, De Smet stopped in the Crow camp
while he was en route to St. Louis. At the time, the
Blackf eet had just killed two distinguished Crow war-
riors; an atrocity which, in the minds of the Crows,
cried out for retaliation. This second visit was equally
barren from a spiritual point of view. 61
De Smet quotes a letter of Father Point to the effect
that he had baptized fourteen Crow Indians during the
time he worked among the Blackf eet in 1846-47. These
would, then, be the first Christians from the Crow tribe.
Moreover,
Every returning spring they [the Crows] send pressing invitations to
the Black-robes to come and establish themselves among them, in
order to be taught the way of the Lord. 62
1 14 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
This desire of the tribe was unfulfilled until 1880 when
Father Peter Barcelo visited them for the first time.
He reported the results of this first excursion:
. . . according to the arrangement made I left this place [Helena] for
the special purpose of visiting the Crow Indians. After visiting
some Catholic families on the way I reached an Indian camp for the
first time in about the middle point between Fort Custer and Terry's
Landing. They received me very well, and through a coloured man,
who knew their language, I made them understand that my wish
was to teach them the right way to heaven. 63
Father instructed the Indians and baptized a few chil-
dren and one old squaw. He also had some very amicable
conversations with the agent concerning the possibility
of establishing a mission on the reservation. It was de-
cided to seek permission from the President of the United
States, With respect to the Indians themselves, however,
Barcelo writes:
From the very beginning I declared to them that I could not teach
them properly, if they were to be all the time roaming about; that it
was necessary for them to settle themselves in a fixed place, and there
cultivate the ground, to build a large and nice church, and to do all
the rest for their civilization. They all agreed to that and showed
themselves willing to follow my teaching and directions. 64
This was the first of many visits which Father Barcelo
made to these Indians. Reading the letters he so punctu-
ally wrote during these early years, one may trace the
rise and fall of his hopes. He had to be circumspect with
the agent who feared the strong Methodist element on
the reservation; he had to be tactful with the Indians
who were pressing him to seek permission for them to
settle in some suitable part of the reservation. He wrote
in July, 1881:
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 1 1 5
I feel very happy with these poor Indians, and extremely anxious
to settle them in an excellent place of their reservation far away
from the whites. 65
In his very next letter, written a week later, lie uncovers
his innermost feelings after a keen disappointment:
I have felt sometimes very much disgusted and strongly inclined to
leave the Indians before the two months appointed by Y[our]
R[everence] expire. It is the hope of baptising some more children
that keeps me. With the grown-up Indians I have no hope unless I
can show them by actions that I am their true friend; a thing which
I cannot do in the present circumstances. 66
Three years spent generously enough by Barcelo found
the establishment of a permanent mission no more prob-
able. A feeling of futility began to haunt the tireless
priest. He worked and prayed; still he realized he could
do no lasting good whatever until there was a Crow
mission, not just a missionary among the Crows. Father
Peter Prando was sent to help the overburdened Barcelo
in 1883. New blood meant new life. Father Prando,
however, actually was destined to work more among the
neighboring Cheyennes, though he did not neglect the
Crows. This was especially true as it became more and
more obvious that Father Barcelo's health was breaking
under the load he mercilessly had taken upon himself.
Father Prando baptized 533 Crow children during the
two months he spent with this tribe in the spring of
1886. In May of the same year, Father Urban Grassi
visited the Crow mission with Father Prando to select a
spot for the mission buildings:
They thought a good place was Big Horn Valley. And as soon as Fr.
Grassi saw the mouth of Rotten Grass [Creek] he looked around and
said, "This is the right place to build a mission/* and so it was. 67
116 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
The first step toward fulfilling Father Barcelo's dream
had been taken.
Not quite a year was to elapse before the mission
buildings were begun. Fathers Peter Prando and Joseph
Bandini left Helena on February 18, 1887:
. . . travelling three days over one foot of snow they arrived at
Rotten-Grass on February 21st and clearing a patch of snow 12' x 9'
they stuck their first tent which [was] their kitchen and everything.
. . . After some days, the weather getting milder, they put up two
more tents one as a parlor and store room, and another as a chapel.
They began to have the service every Sunday and the Indians would
throng and fill up the large tent. As soon as the snow disappeared
and the ground got soft they put up a fence around the land. They
broke land for a garden and gave the contract to build a school house
two stories and a half high, 60 x 40 feet. In the month of May the
contractors came, and in September the school house was finished. 68
As simple as this is the firsthand account of the founda-
tion of yet another Jesuit Indian mission.
The Ursulines arrived October 1, 1887, to take charge
of the school. They had chosen a poor time to come to
their new home, for the Crows were greatly excited by
an Indian medicine man, named "The Man-who-rides-a-
horse-that~has-his-tail-wrapped-up." The eve of their
departure for St. Xavier's, the Sisters had spent at Fort
Custer, where the Indians passed the night riding around
the agency buildings and firing their guns into the
structures. Father Prando remarks on this unusual
reception:
They were coming to take charge of the poor debased Crow girls to
take them away from the abyss of corruption and beastly life and
raise them up to the path of virtue and civilization, to wrest them
from the grasp of the Devil, and to have their sort among the chil-
dren of God and populate heaven. 69
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 1 17
The next day the imminent battle between the Crows
and the soldiers was put off while the brave Sisters passed
between the battle lines to reach the mission twenty-
three miles away.
The "Crow War/* whose beginning the Sisters wit-
nessed, was nothing more than a skirmish. The United
States soldiers demanded the surrender of the seven
Indians who had actually fired their guns into the
agency buildings. The Indians, encouraged by the medi-
cine man, remained obstinate. At the end of the allotted
time, the soldiers started to take the seven culprits by
force. Swordbearer, or Man-who-rides-on-a-horse, was
wounded in the ensiling skirmish and, while attempting
to flee, he was killed by one of the Indian policemen. So
ended the "Crow War."
The Indians soon quieted down and began to send
their children to the mission school. There were fifty
in school by the Christmas of 1 8 87.
The difficulties encountered in the operation of a
boarding school so far from settled country were numer-
ous. Many trips on horseback in every kind of weather
had to be made. But the mission prospered: very soon
more buildings had to be erected. A church 75 x 36 feet
and another school building 100 x 24 feet and two and
a half stories high were built; finally, a brick building for
the boys* school was begun in 1890. The money for all
this expansion came from the faithful friend of the
Indian missions, the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions
of Washington, D. C.
Money spent on these schools was certainly well in-
vested, for it was with the young people that the future
of the mission lay. At the time when the missionaries
were building schools for 150 Crow boys, Father Prando
1 1 8 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
gives us some hint of the reason why working with the
older generation was, at most, a barren and thankless
task:
It is hard now to convert the old Indians, whose body is lying down
in laziness in their lodges, while their brain and memory is going back
over to the old times [,] remembering the Buffaloes which are gone
and crying for them, and fearing to die of starvation. 70
The old people were living in the past the past filled
with medicine men, immorality, irresponsibility, and
inactivity. To effect a wholesale conversion from such
universal degradation would have required a miracle of
grace, which man has no right to expect.
The future, however, had definite promise:
But the work with the little ones in the school is full of consolation
and blessed with fruits. On the days of communion we count 80 of
our pupils approaching the sacraments and this with conviction and
joy in their hearts, and with great devotion as sometimes they cry out:
"I love Jesus Christ!" 71
The very fact that the children were kept at the school
was a great step toward their improvement. Away
from the Indian lodges, the children were away from the
old women who considered it a duty to keep the young
ones filled with the tales of pagan days, pagan traditions,
and pagan mythology. To offset such a background was
the work of the missionaries.
But to obtain really the proposed end, it admits of no fun; it re-
quires people who made up their mind to toil, to set a good example to
the Indians, people who will never stop at any hardship, and never
back out, who will gain their ground inch by inch and die on the
battlefield. When people of that stamp are found the conversion of
the Indians will be sure, sometime. 72
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 119
Thus was described a missionary of the Crows by the
greatest of them, Father Peter Prando.
The history of the mission, staffed by priests and Sisters
of the mold just described by Prando, is not a story of
unbroken triumphs; rather it is the tale of tireless labor
and steady, albeit, unsensational progress.
The advance made in the educational work is summed
up nicely in the annual report of 1 893 :
St. Xavier's Mission School, located at the mouth of Rotten Grass
Creek, on Big Horn River, has three main buildings, besides a dozen
smaller ones. . . .
This school was commenced not quite six years ago, and it can
show already very remarkable progress in every branch of learning
for Indian children. They all speak English and read and spell from
the first to the fifth reader as well as any white children, and they
have improved enough in arithmetic, grammar, geography and his-
tory. They sing and play the organ very well, and the boys have a
small brass band that astonishes all the visitors.
Their improvement in industrial branches is equally good. Some
of the boys learn carpentry, blacksmithing, baking, farming, stock-
raising and so on. The girls have been learning housekeeping, cooking,
washing, ironing, machine and hand sewing and even dressmaking. 73
The report speaks eloquently of the school's success.
The year following this encouraging report was rather
unpleasant for the missionaries. The separation of the
Indian children from their homes for a whole year at a
time and the attempt to keep the children in the mission
boarding school until they were practically ready for
marriage, had been the cause of much complaint and
dissatisfaction on the part of the parents. The crisis came
in 1894. One of the Indian police, who was a truant
officer, committed suicide while intoxicated. A few
days later, an Indian girl died at the mission after a long
illness. Some of the older natives wanted to take this
120 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
occasion to whip and then kill the priests, thus destroy-
ing the mission utterly. This calamity was prevented by
a timely concession. The children were permitted to
visit home for one month in the summer, and they were
not to be kept in school beyond their sixteenth year.
This quieted the agitators and reconciled the parents for
a time, at least.
This discouraging incident is only one of several that
could be cited. As long as one studies the educational
work among the Crows one reads a hopeful story. But in
the spiritual advance of the tribe it was toil filled with
shadows and discouragement. If twenty adults attended
Mass and prayers, it was a notable event,, True enough,
children were baptized, and even some of their pagan
parents. Usually, for the parents, baptism was just some
strong medicine of the priests; of the dignity and of the
effects of the sacrament, they knew little. 74 In the face
of such deep-rooted superstitions, the missionaries were
wont to console themselves with the thought that God
surely would never allow the lives of so many mission-
aries to be consumed in vain. Sooner or later the tribe
would be converted.
These hopes were not entirely vain. Most of the
Indians at St. Xavier's and the neighboring stations were
baptized Catholics by 1910. Strange to narrate, by this
time the mission was definitely on the decline. For in-
stance, in 1911, there were only forty-eight boys in the
mission school, while the branch schools had been closed
entirely. The withdrawal of government support in the
late 1890's was a singularly important factor in this
decline. The mission had to retrench on all fronts, and
the missionary became more and more engrossed in the
fight to find sufficient funds to keep the schools open.
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 121
This meant there was much less time to visit his flock
who needed constant encouragement if they were to
remain faithful. The government schools were converted
into day schools which were much more attractive to the
Indians because of the greater liberty permitted the
pupils. Against these schools, supported by abundant
budgets and made attractive to the Indian character,
the struggling mission boarding schools had to contend.
The number of pupils in the schools dwindled to five
boys and five girls in 1920. The next year the school
was closed, not to be reopened until a few years ago.
The work accomplished at St. Francis Xavier's since
its opening in 1887 has been considerable. The ground
gained has been gained inch by inch, and men have
burned out their lives to consolidate those gains. The
reward of those years has been the conversion of many
groups of Crows, but underneath, a thread of doubt, or
of suspicion that all is not as it seems is found in the
records of the missionaries. The Crows, with some re-
markable exceptions, always gave the priests cause for
worry. This is why St. Francis Xavier's was a mission for
brave and not easily discouraged men.
The people near St. Xavier's were not neglected.
Catholics in Billings, Hardin, Glendive, Miles City, and
Fort Custer were tended by the Jesuits from the mission.
These cities of Montana were struggling settlements in
those days, too small to support their own pastors. Some
of the stations were established by the Jesuit Fathers and
then, when sufficiently developed, turned over to the
Bishop. Other localities were visited only until a zealous
diocesan priest could be found to tend the flock. Wyola,
Crow Agency, and Warman were also visited by the
"missionaries on horseback." A little school for the
1 22 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Crows of Upper Big Horn Valley was opened in 1921.
The building was supplied by Bird Horse, the Crow
chief , and the teacher was Barney Old Coyote, a talented
Crow Indian. Two years later, a chapel for the Indians
was built at Soap Creek. So the work continues and,
with God's help, will continue so long as there are Crow
Indians needing the help, counsel, and encouragement of
the missionaries.
Two of the stations supplied from St. Xavier's deserve
special mention. Writing in September, 1882, Father
Peter Barcelo remarks that the interpreter at Fort Custer
"offered himself to help me with his teams to build a
church and a house and pointed out a certain place,
which they call Prior Creek as most suitable for the pur-
pose." 75 This is the first mention of the future station of
St. Charles at Pryor Creek. Here, in 1892^the Ursulines
taught in the school which had been built for the Indians
of Plenty Coups, a staunch Crow chief. The school pros-
pered until 1898, when the lack of money forced the
Jesuits to close this branch. The school buildings were
sold to the United States Government in 1901 for use as
a government school.
When the Fathers gave up the Pryor school the Indians lost heart.
Little by little they gave up their religious practices and returned to
their old superstitions. They keep away from the church. 76
The tribe was finally brought back by the tireless energy
and inexhaustible patience of Father Aloysius Vrebosch
who visited Pryor Creek for six years without any ap-
parent effect. About 1912,
. . . the Indians began to be struck by his untiring zeal; it was beyond
their understanding; it went to their hearts. Finally all the Pryor
Indians returned to the church of the Blackrobe. . . . 77
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 123
The second interesting station supplied from St.
Xavier's was that of St. Ann's Mission, Lodge Grass.
Father Aloysius Vrebosch built the chapel in 1909 in an
effort to counteract the effect of the Protestant church
at Lodge Grass. The chapel was also used as a day school
conducted by an efficient teacher, Mr. Alexander A.
Anderson. The school and the church at Lodge Grass
were not immediately successful because of ill will on the
part of some and the ill reports spread by others. Finally,
the limitless patience of Father Vrebosch overcame all
obstacles, and in 1911 a frame church was built. Three
years later, on September 24, 1914, Bishop Lenihan con-
firmed thirty-four people at St. Ann's Mission. The
little outpost had succeeded in saving this flock to the
Church.
The story of St. Francis Xavier's Mission has merely
repeated what happened in almost every establishment.
From the central house the Jesuits pushed on to the four
points of the compass. The mission among the Crows
left but one major tribe deprived of a missionary. This
deprivation was not to last long, for very soon after the
Jesuits began to work among the Crows, they took up
their posts with the Cheyennes in southeastern Montana.
ST. JOSEPH LABRE'S MISSION
The Cheyennes had been harassed and driven about
since the coming of the white man. From the beginning
of the great westward movement, they had been fighting
the whites. When gold was discovered in the Bad Lands
in the early 1870's, the rush of whites into their territory
brought trouble. Some Cheyennes were with Sitting
Bull, the great Sioux war chief, when the allied tribes
massacred Custer and his command. As punishment for
1 24 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
their role in this massacre, the Cheyennes were sent to
Oklahoma. Here they were most unhappy, so much so
that they made repeated and determined efforts to re-
turn to their homeland.
Finally, General Nelson A. Miles recommended to the
officials in "Washington that the Cheyennes be per-
mitted to go back to their lands between the Tongue
River and Rosebud in southeastern Montana. In May
of 1882 they returned to resume their old habits
of hunting and traveling about at their leisure. This
could not last, for the buffalo were rapidly disappearing.
Two hundred and fifty thousand of the beasts were
killed in the Cheyenne country by the whites in 1883.
The disappearance of their food supply gave rise to the
government ration stations, where the Indians could
obtain enough to keep themselves alive.
Such was the condition of the Cheyennes when
Fathers Barcelo and Prando visited them in 1883. Their
coming had been brought about by the intercessions of
George Yoakam, a Catholic soldier of Fort Keogh.
Yoakam had asked Bishop James O'Connor, Vicar Apos-
tolic of Nebraska, to send a priest among this rapidly
dwindling tribe.
Barcelo was enthusiastic over the possibilities of a
mission among the Cheyennes:
These Indians are well disposed; they are specially anxious about
their children's schooling. We have only to be constant in our work.
. . . They show good disposition to piety; their women are remark-
ably modest and reserved. I hope the Lord will grant them the light
of holy faith. 78
Though Barcelo had expressed the opinion that there was
far more chance of success among the Cheyennes than
J,:>U1JL jyJLUtoK^iNd UN MUiN JL AiNA 1Z>
among the Crows, yet in obedience to the order of his
superior he left the Cheyennes to go among the Crows.
The mission among the Cheyennes was actually
founded by His- Excellency, John B. Brondel, Bishop of
Helena. In response to the call of the prelate, six Ursu-
line Sisters arrived at Miles City on January 17, 1884.
They were accompanied by Father Joseph Eyler, of the
Diocese of Cleveland. Bishop Brondel and Father E. W.
J. Lindesmith, army chaplain at Fort Keogh, met the
band of recruits on their arrival at Miles City.
Father Eyler set out soon after for the Cheyenne
country. For the future mission, he bought a piece of
land with a log cabin on it at the point where Otter
Creek flows into the Tongue River. The mud-roofed
log hut was divided into three unconnected compart-
ments, each with a small window and door. Two of the
compartments had only dirt floors. The largest room was
to be chapel and living quarters for the Sisters; the mid-
dle compartment was used as a classroom, while Father
Eyler occupied the other end of the cabin. Boxes and
benches were the furniture of the mission.
The Sisters reached their new home on April 2, 1884.
The poverty of the mission was so manifest that St.
Benedict Joseph Labre, the poorest of God's poor, was
chosen patron. The history of this mission was stormy.
Trouble came, not because of the Indians, for they loved
and obeyed the missionary, but because of the inter-
ference of the whites who desired ardently to provoke the
Cheyennes into giving some pretext under which the
tribe could be forced to vacate this excellent cattle
country. To have begun the mission any time would have
been difficult enough, but under these circumstances it
was too much for Father Eyler's health. In June he
returned East. Two diocesan priests succeeded one an-
126 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
other for short periods. By July 1, 1884 Father Barcelo
was writing his letters from St. Labre's. He relates
that he spent his days working at the language, instruct-
ing, baptizing, and trying to save the Indians from the
whites.
... a dastardly attack was made [on September 1 5 ] on the zealous
layman, George Yoakam. This friend of the priest had heard of
Father Barcelo's return and hastened to pay him a visit. Late in
the evening four cowboys wearing masks appeared at the door of the
priest's quarters and demanded that George Yoakam be brought out.
They declared that he had been siding with the Indians against the
whites. Father Barcelo was interceding for him when one of the
roughs thrust the barrel of a six shooter into the chest of the priest,
while the other three men fetched out Yoakam and took him away.
An hour later Yoakam returned, limping as he came. They had tied
him to a tree not far from the mission and had given him a severe
whipping. After untying him, one of the men said, "This is only a
foretaste of hell, if you do not hit the trail at once we will send you
there." Yoakam left the country. . . . 79
This harrowing experience hastened the break of
Father Barcelo's health. He had been complaining in
his letters for some time of a weak stomach. He left the
Cheyennes on December 1 8 .
The valorous and persevering Sisters remained at the
mission for two months until the visit of Bishop Brondel
in February, 1885. The Sisters, who now had no chap-
lain, were living in a hovel. The Bishop undertook a
lecture tour through the East in an effort to raise money.
The new building, blessed at the mission on November
8, 1885, is sufficient evidence of his success. The Jesuits
now took charge of the mission for the time being and
Fathers Aloysius van der Velden and Peter Prando were
assigned as missionaries among the Cheyennes. Father
van der Velden was to spend twelve years with this tribe.
Life at the mission went along smoothly for a time.
JESUIT MISSIONS IN MONTANA 127
The annual reports of the Indian agent always mention
the work of St. Labre's favorably. The Fathers appar-
ently were satisfied with the results of these early years,
for there is nothing in the letters or records of the time
to prove the contrary. Quite unexpectedly, in 1888, the
harmony was shattered.
Trouble was brought on by an Indian medicine man,
named Porcupine. The year before, a Paiute Indian,
Wb-vo-ka, started in Nevada a peculiar religious rite
called the Ghost Dance, which Porcupine introduced
among the Cheyennes. To make his medicine seem more
real, he disappeared for a time. "When he returned, he
declared that he himself had met the Messiah on the
Wind River in Wyoming, and had been told that all the
Indians were to get back their land, that the buffalo
would once more return, and that the white man's guns
would no longer be able to hurt them. The Ghost Dance
was then advocated as a charm to hasten on these days of
plenty. Thus the minds of the Indians became un-
balanced. Things went from bad to worse, and to
punish them for their infidelity, the Jesuits abandoned
the mission. 80
Father van der Velden returned to St. Labre's, Janu-
ary 1, 1889. The times were still troublous and the
Indians restless. The next year one of the pupils at the
mission was accused of murder. Events now moved
rapidly toward the end. The new boys* school was built
in 1891-92 only to be closed in July of the latter year,
owing to a fresh outbreak of the Ghost Dance craze.
The school reopened in March, 1893. A new church was
built during 189 5 -9 6 with the first Mass being celebrated
on May 3 by Father van der Velden, who had just re-
turned as superior of St. Labre's. In the spring of 1897,
Hoover, a sheepherder was murdered by three Cheyennes.
128 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
The three culprits were eventually captured and taken
to Miles City for trial.
After the Hoover murder, the Indians once more be-
came sullen and refused to send their children to school.
All the children had gone by July of 1897. This was all
that was needed to convince the higher Jesuit superiors
that there were far more profitable places to sacrifice
men than among this ungrateful and fickle tribe. No
doubt Father van der Velden and Father John van der
Pol would have stayed on at the mission if allowed to
act in accord with their personal feelings. But such was
not to be. The missionaries were ordered to abandon St.
Labre's. In spite of their own desires and in spite of the
touching loyalty of the Ursulines to the tribe, the two
Fathers departed for the Crow mission on August 10,
1897. Father van der Velden's parting words were:
Sisters, God bless you for your devotion and for your many examples
of virtue. I leave Our Lord with you. May He be your consolation. 81
This ends the history of St. Labre's as a Jesuit mission,
except for occasional visits by traveling missionaries in
later years.
Thus the curtain ring? down on the role of the Society
of Jesus in forwarding the church in Montana. A cen-
tury ago it was St. Mary's, the cradle of the church in
Montana; then through the century, St. Ignatius', St.
Peter's, Holy Family, Helena, St. Paul's, St. Xavier's, and
finally St. Labre's. From these as centers, the missionaries
carried the gospel to the four winds. "Obscure toil, soli-
tude, privation, hardship, and death were to be the mis-
sionary's portion" 82 and, quite incidentally, the price
to be paid. The reward? The church gloriously vital
in the Montana of 1 94 5 .
DAHO
CHAPTER VI
Missions amon^ tne Coeur a Alenes
ana Nez Perces
SACRED HEART MISSION
LAST READ OF SACRED HEART MISSION AMONG THE
Coeur <T Alenes in 1846 when Father Joset had just com-
pleted its transfer from the St. Joe River to the Coeur
d'Alene River. Here he had built a rough bark chapel,
three log houses, and inclosed a field in which wheat,
potatoes, and oats were planted. From this point we
resume our story.
The very next spring, that of 1847, Joset returned
from spending the winter with Father Hoecken at St.
Ignatius' on the Clark Fork River. The cattle belonging
to Sacred Heart Mission had all perished during the
severe winter; only the horses were saved by the moss
which the Indians fed them. This was a serious blow
to the new establishment, but not nearly so important
as the crisis which now arose.
One evening during prayers in the church, Father
Joset was disturbed by a commotion in the congregation.
Upon investigation he found a woman had been stabbed
by her former husband because she refused to live with
him, now that he had married again. The priest took it
for granted that this atrocity had been perpetrated in the
church. Father, thoroughly disconsolate,
. . . shut the church and shut himself in his room with a single little
boy to serve him: he was considering that it would be useless to try
125
1 3 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
any longer, if the faithful could not enjoy security even in the
church: he wrote to Fr. Hoecken to send him Indians to take away
the little property we had: he was about sending the letter, though
it [cost] him a severe interior conflict, when he chanced to hear that
the wound was not inflicted in the church and that the guilty party
had run away. 1
The threatened abandonment of the mission ended by the
election of a capable chief to keep order and the mission-
ary was now ready to begin his real work.
Contrary to a common misapprehension, the conver-
sion of the Coeur d'Alene tribe was not a task of a few
weeks. These Indians had not been the terror of neigh-
boring tribes and of the Hudson's Bay traders without
reason. When the missionaries first went among them,
it was the boast of the tribe that there was no neighbor-
ing nation whom they had not fought and conquered;
even the Hudson's Bay traders stayed away from them
because they knew they would be worsted in any trading
transaction, and probably suffer physical violence be-
sides. These, then, were the Indians whom Joset now
undertook to convert.
Like other Indians, the Coeur d'Alenes were wont to
roam about a good deal. The digging of camass roots,
fishing, and the hunting of buffalo were the usual reasons
for their constant shifting about from place to place.
Therefore, the first end to be attained before any lasting
good could be accomplished was to make the Indians
settle near one spot. Furthermore, the location selected
must be made attractive to them.
To bring this about, several events now transpired. St.
Mary's Mission among the Flatheads was closed in 1850,
thus freeing for other work the gifted priest-doctor and
architect, Anthony Ravalli. Father Ravalli came to
AMONG THE COEUR D'ALENES AND NEZ PERCfiS 131
Sacred Heart Mission in the fall of 1850. The spring of
1851 saw Father Peter De Vos leave the mission of St.
Paul's at Kettle Falls. Father Joset was sent to replace
him. This left Father Ravalli, the artist and builder, at
the mission which needed a church to fill the role of
rallying place for a roving savage tribe.
With the encouragement of Father Gregory Gazzoli,
his superior, and with his own talent for such things,
Ravalli undertook the construction of a magnificent
church for the forest and an excellent church for any
place, forest or town. It was ninety feet by forty feet,
and twenty-five feet from floor to ceiling. It was built
entirely by the Indians under the supervision of Brother
Magri. At the time of the building, there were only
some three hundred and twenty members in the tribe,
war and smallpox having destroyed hundreds since the
days of Lewis and Clark (1805) when there were two
thousand Coeur d'Alenes.
The actual construction of the church is graphically
described by Joset :
Large quantity of heavy timbers were to be hewed, 24 posts over 25
feet long, squared 2 l / 2 by 2 l /2 feet, some 3 by 3; sills, joists, wall
plates, rafters, etc., all in proportion: 20,000 feet of boards to be
manufactured at the saw-pit, to be dressed by hand, 50 thousand
shingles, [30,000 cubic feet] of stones for the foundation to be dug
from the mountains: then the whole to be brought to place on the
top of the hill: the stones l /2 mile distant, timbers, some more than
a mile: large quantity of clay to serve as mortar and filling between
the posts. Trucks with block wheels were roughly made and for
want of sufficient teams were drawn mostly by hand. They gathered
from the prairies a sufficient amount of fibres to make all the ropes
needed, and made all other preparations for they were left entirely
to their own industry. 2
For all the work entailed in the collection of material and
1 3 2 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
later, in the construction of the church, there was no
question of wages. Each Indian was given a bowl of
mush once a day. Their only complaint was that too
much mush stuck to the cook's serving spoon. In fact,
it was a reward for good Christian living to be allowed
to work on the church. The worst punishment inflicted
on the natives at this time was to be forbidden to take
part in the construction of their house of prayer,
When the church was actually being built, the mission
resembled
... a large beehive: men, women and children all were busy[,] Some
at the saw-pits, others making mortises, tenons or shaping columns;
some, again, carrying water, or mixing the clay, which others used
as mortar in making the foundations [and] walls and Br. Magri
having an eye to everything. 3
The work went ahead steadily. On October 15, 1853,
Governor Stevens notes in his diary:
"We started at 8 o'clock, after having given Brother Charles as many
lariats for raising the timbers of the church as we could spare. 4
The church was sufficiently under cover to hold services
before the end of the year. However, the work went on
for several years since the Indians still had to hunt and
fish and dig camass roots for their year's provisions. This
meant they could only work on the church for short
periods at a time. The church had, in 1859:
. . . two fine altars, with handsome pictures of the Sacred Heart and
of the Blessed Virgin, but all the rest is naked, without doors, win-
dows or flooring, and not being framed in on the outside, I fear it will
rot before it is completed. The neophytes have done their best: but
in the absence of resources we cannot continue the work. 5
The years of labor on the church were not wasted.
More and more, the Indians began to look on the mission
AMONG THE COEUR D'ALENES AND NEZ PERQ&S 133
as home. Greater numbers built their log huts near by
and began to cultivate plots of ground, for there was
growing up a generation more Christian than any be-
fore. Because of the prayers, instructions, and services at
the church, they were more civilized and less dependent
on their former roving life. Then too, the Coeur
d'Alenes began to manifest an aptitude and a liking for
farming. These qualities were becoming more and more
developed when the mission was almost ruined for a
second time.
Father Congiato, Superior-General of the Mountain
Missions, was ready to abandon the Coeur d'Alene mis-
sion in 18 57 because the Indians had become less fervent
in attending church. There is no doubt that this tepidity
was due in part to Father Ravalli's difficulty with the
Coeur d'Alene language. Ravalli did exceptional work
with his medical and artistic talents, but he never ac-
complished much with his catechetical instructions since
Indian languages were always a puzzle to him. Father
Joset saved the mission at this juncture by proving to
Congiato that the Coeur d'Alenes were as pious as ever,
if given instructions. There is no question that the
people, young and old, flocked to the explanations of
their newly returned Father.
Hardly had this crisis been met when the Indian Wars
of 1 8 5 8 broke out. In spite of all his efforts, Joset saw his
dear Indians join with the Spokane, Palouse, and Yakima
tribes against the United States Army. The work of
Joset and of the other Jesuits at this critical period makes
a story in itself. Suffice it to say that, having failed to
prevent the war, Joset tried to save Colonel E. J. Steptoe
and his men from utter annihilation; having failed to
prevent a serious encounter, Joset left no stone unturned
134 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
to bring about peace as soon as possible. For many years
Joset was accused of treachery toward the United States
during these wars. That such talk was utterly unfounded
we may judge from the notes of thanks and the ex-
tremely cordial relations existing between the army men
and the missionaries at this time. Governor Isaac I.
Stevens had written to Joset in 1 8 5 5 :
I am personally and officially under weighty obligations both to
yourself and Father Ravalli for your repeated good offices, and I
shall bear testimony to the efficient services you have rendered in the
cause of humanity. 6
Three years later, on the day the treaty with the Coeur
d'Alenes was signed, Colonel George Wright wrote to
Joset:
Now my dear sir, I must thank you very sincerely for your zealous
and persevering efforts in bringing about this accommodation, which
has terminated so successfully. 7
Peace had been restored, but the good Father was dis-
couraged by the fact that his Indians had profited so little
from the years the missionaries had spent among them,
that part of the tribe had readily joined in the uprising.
He had agreed with Father Congiato that the mission
should be abandoned.
Colonel Wright counseled against such a disastrous
move and Lieutenant John Mullan wrote a very touch-
ing letter to Father Congiato:
I trust, therefore, father, you will not abandon these poor children
of the wilds to themselves, but, on the contrary, since they have
been willing to retrace their steps, rather let them be confirmed in
their present good intentions, to set to work to build themselves up
again, to forget the errors of the past and live only in the brightness
of the future. 8
AMONG THE COEUR D'ALENES AND NE2 PERCYS 13 5
This appeal was heeded and the mission was not de-
serted. The story from here moves quickly, for the
Coeur d'Alenes had learned a lesson. They became faith-
ful to their prayers; dutifully they tilled their little
farms; less and less did they leave the mission. Father
Cataldo, writing to De Smet in 1 872, tells the patriarchal
founder of the mission:
I can assure you, Rev. Father, that you have truly great motives
to rejoice in being the founder of this mission; for these "poor
Indians," as they are often styled, manifest a spirit of piety and
morality which those who have never dwelt among them would
hardly credit.
Yesterday after returning to their several camps to work their
little farms, they signified their intention of coming back to the
mission towards the end of the month, in order to be present at the
devotions of the month of Mary. I am confident they will keep their
word as they did last year.
The day before yesterday, all the Indians, without a single excep-
tion, approached the Holy Sacraments. I think there is hardly
another people or tribe on earth of which the same can be said. 9
Little wonder that the Coeur d'Alene mission became
known as a Utopia. The years of patient effort had
certainly produced a hundredfold. It was now time to
take the last important step. The mission must be moved.
As early as 1 874, this action was discussed. The reasons
given were many, but the following few were much
more patent than others. The tribe had settled down
almost completely; they had given up their migrations
for fishing and root-digging, and hunted for the last
time in 1876; they had taken to farming and, to find
land, some had already moved to Nilgwalko, or Andrew's
Spring, on Camas Prairie, where a temporary chapel had
been constructed for the use of the missionaries who
would spend a few weeks with the Indians during the
136 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
root-gathering season. Here, on this prairie, was won-
derful farming land, and enough for all, if they would
come soon and anticipate the whites.
Furthermore, the whites were filtering into the coun-
try around the mission on the Coeur d'Alene River. This
trickle was to become a flood when prospectors began
to pour into the country a few years later. The Indians
had to be saved from the baneful influence of the whites
if the good accomplished was not to be dissipated.
A third factor was the isolation of the mission in its
present location, with the consequent delays and expense
in communication. For example, the trip to Walla
Walla for provisions took three months*
They have a great wagon at the Mission, which is to be loaded with
hams, cheese and other results of their industry and transported to
market. No political economist ever imagined that bacon and cheese
could overcome such difficulties as these will have to encounter. The
wagon is rolled down the hill to the riverside, then out upon a raft
built for the purpose. Here it is loaded, and the ark moves down the
Coeur d'Alene River to its mouth, many miles below. A sail is now
hoisted, and aided by this the Indian boatmen and their paddles pro-
pel the boat up the Coeur d'Alene Lake to its southern extremity.
The lake is a beautiful sheet of water surrounded by mountains.
When we have reached the southern end, our cheese seems farther
from market than ever. What is to be done with a huge wagon heavily
laden, where there is no sign of road save a narrow pack trail? Some
Indians from the mission have come through the woods to the head
of the lake with oxen and ponies. They take the wagon to pieces, load
these pieces, together with the merchandise, on the backs of the ani-
mals, and then cross the mountains. Having emerged on the prairie
beyond, the wagon is again put together, reloaded, the oxen are
hitched to it, and after many days of patient journeying Walla Walla
is reached, the hams and cheese are disposed of, necessary supplies are
purchased for the mission, and the journey just described is
repeated. 10
This crushing toil is what the Fathers wanted to end by
putting the mission in a more accessible location.
AMONG THE COEUR D > ALENES AND NEZ PERCfiS 137
Against moving the mission, there were strong argu-
ments. The church had just been finished; many of the
Indians had their homes and their farms near by; at the
new mission they would have to begin again from the
very foundations. The Fathers knew these arguments,
but the others seemed to be of greater weight. Hence the
missionaries began in 1876 to persuade the Indians that
the removal of the mission was the only sane mode of
acting under the present circumstances. In the instruc-
tions and talks in the church, Father Diomedi insisted
that the Indians
. . . were bound to move, first, for self-preservation; secondly, for the
education of their children; thirdly, for the preservation of their
religion and especially for the morality of the women. 11
The removal of the mission began February 11, 1877,
and by November of that year was practically com-
pleted, with only a few of the old Indians refusing to
make the change. A log school house, sixty by thirty
feet, and twenty-two feet high, had been built in antici-
pation of the Sisters of Providence who were to come
from Vancouver. These courageous Sisters arrived from
Walla Walla in the fall of 1 878. The new mission marked
another stage in the development of the tribe.
During the very year of the mission's removal, 1877,
occurred Chief Joseph's Nez Perce War. The Nez
Perces tried to gain the Coeur d'Alenes as allies, but failed
miserably. The year 1877 was not to be a repetition of
1858. Although rumors of a Coeur d'Alene rising had
caused many whites to desert their farms and rush to
the protection of near-by settlements, the Coeur d'Alenes
actually guarded and protected these deserted farms
from any chance marauders. When the fighting was
1 3 8 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
finished in the Palouse country, Father Cataldo received
a vote of thanks signed by 107 of the settlers in this
district:
We the undersigned desire to express our sincere gratitude for the
kindness shown us by Mr. Cataldo and do hereby tender a vote of
thanks to that gentleman for his office in assuring us of the friendli-
ness of the Indians under his charge, and also to signify our appre-
ciation of the good will manifested by the Northern tribes generally
and especially the Coeur d'Leon. 12
This rising had no attraction for the Coeur d'Alenes, for
by now the missionary had them well in hand. His word
was law. Besides, the Coeur d'Alenes were established in
a veritable garden of Eden from which they drew a com-
fortable living. Their days of hating and fighting the
white man were finished.
From this time forward, the Coeur d'Alene mission
progressed steadily but unobtrusively. The colorful days
of Indian wars, tribal hunts, and pagan celebrations were
gone.
Four years after its moving, the mission was still in the
pioneer stage as far as buildings were concerned:
The church is a small affair, scarcely fit for a stable; the residence has
two rooms worse than many Indian huts, and the school house so
necessary, if we wish to preserve the faith of the rising generation,
and guard against the wiles of Protestant agents, consists of four
upright posts. All that could be done so far was to erect an orphan
asylum for thirty girls, supported by the Government, and directed
by Sisters of Charity. 13
The Indians had collected two thousand dollars toward
the erection of their new church but this sum was woe-
fully inadequate for such a structure as was needed.
Spiritually, the tribe retained its fervor. Regularly
AMONG THE COEUR D'ALENES AND NEZ PERCfiS 139
they attended Mass and approached the sacraments. So
striking was the example of their lives that not a few
white people were attracted to the church. On the Feast
of the Assumption, 1883, no one failed to come to
church, although it was their harvest time and many had
miles to ride. At the High Mass, sung by the Indians,
there were nearly three hundred communions.
In turning around to sing the Dominus Vobiscum, I [Father Aloysius
Robaut] was struck with admiration at seeing them kneeling on the
floor, without any support, and again, at the Gloria and Credo at
seeing them sitting Indian fashion on the floor. . . . 14
The residence for the priests and the outside of the
new church had been completed by 1883, and the school
was operating successfully in 1887. Sacred Heart Mis-
sion had become a model Christian settlement.
So Christian was the atmosphere about this mission
that on November 13, 1888, the novitiate of the Society
of Jesus was begun at Sacred Heart Mission. The next
month the tertianship, as the last year of the Jesuit's
ascetical training is called, was also begun at the mission.
Superiors thought the spiritual life of the Indians would
be helped by the example of fervent young religious,
while the young Jesuits would certainly be inspired by
the example of this thoroughly Catholic tribe.
It is an interesting fact that the internal affairs of the
tribe were handled entirely by the Indians. The "Soldiers
of the Sacred Heart" was a select body of men, out-
standing for their piety and general behavior, who led
all religious exercises and acted as the police for the
tribe. They arrested any wrongdoer and brought him
before the tribal judge where he was sentenced to be im-
prisoned or whipped or fined sometimes to all three,
140 - THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
if the gravity of his offense merited such harsh treatment.
Two things resulted from this native police force; first,
it was the greatest of honors to be a member of the force
and a terrible calamity to be discharged from it for
misconduct; second, the Coeur d'Alenes became a model
tribe, trusted and respected by white men because of
their uniformly civilized conduct.
Sacred Heart Mission was not spared when govern-
ment support was taken from all the mission schools in
the 1890's. With the other missions, Sacred Heart was
saved by the generosity of Mother Katherine DrexeL
Produce from the farm, gifts from friends, and the
money sent by Mother Drexel kept the school open. A
certain decline, however, set in as the restricted means
necessitated more and more retrenching. All the while
the government schools were built up without stint.
The mission school had reached a low point by 1922.
Years of struggle to keep the school open had been suc-
cessful, but the buildings and equipment had become
dilapidated or outmoded. Still the school remained open.
In 1927-28, there were forty-five pupils. This was a far
cry from the days when there had been eighty boys and
eighty girls in the schools, but in those times there were
relatively no obstacles to be overcome in conducting
these institutions.
What had happened to the school had happened to the
mission. The whites had come onto the reservation in
the early 1890's. Intermarriage and liquor had brought
hitherto unknown problems to the Coeur d'Alenes.
Today, the mission goes on, but there are not many full-
blooded Indians left to profit from the instructions of
the Fathers. Sacred Heart Mission still retains more of
its former greatness than any of the old Indian missions,
AMONG THE COEUR D'ALENES AND NEZ PERCfiS 141
but one cannot stifle the thought that its "Golden Age"
is past.
A mere catalogue of the stations visited from Sacred
Heart Mission during its many decades of life would in-
clude almost every district west of St. Ignatius' Mission,
Montana. For many years Sacred Heart, either on the
St. Joe River, on the Coeur d'Alene River, or at Camas
Prairie, was the most important Jesuit residence of the
surrounding country. Hence, the intrepid priests made
their way from here to the north, south, and west; to
Colville, Chewelah, and Canada; to Sprague, Spokane,
and Cheney; to Tekoa and Lewiston.
The mining towns of Wardner, Burke, Wallace, Mur-
ray, and Mullan were visited in 1889:
The miners do not rush en masse to the confessional the very first
night the priest arrives. So after the few fervent souls (that are
found even here, where are there not?) had gone to their duty the
priest has to go out and draw the others to the sacraments. He must
see them in their cabins, eat with them in their restaurants, visit
them in the tunnels and down the shafts of the mines. 15
The fruit of two months of such determined labor was
three hundred and fifty-two confessions, sixteen bap-
tisms, twelve marriages rehabilitated, and one marriage
performed. The trials were amply repaid.
There was one other station of Sacred Heart Mission
which grew into a mission in its own right: St. Joseph's
among the Nez Perces.
ST. JOSEPH'S MISSION
The story of the Flathead delegations sent to bring
missionaries from the East is a chapter in history known
to many. Less widely known, but no less interesting,
142 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
were the attempts made by the Nez Perces to secure
Catholic priests. The difference between the two is that
the Flatheads succeeded in 1840, whereas the Nez Perces
had to wait until 1 8 67.
From time immemorial, the Flatheads and the Nez
Perces have been very friendly. Trade and intermarriage
have occurred between the two from earliest times. It is
commonly thought that one or two Nez Perce warriors
were in the first Flathead delegation to St. Louis in 1 83 1.
About 1835, a young Nez Perce went East with a
party of returning emigrants. While in St. Louis, he
learned something of Catholic doctrine. When he re-
turned to the camp, he gave instructions to the other
Indians. Salmon River Billy, as he came to be known,
warned the Nez Perces not to accept the religion of the
Protestant preachers when Samuel Parker and Dr. Mar-
cus Whitman came in 183 5, and again the following year
when Whitman returned with Henry H. Spalding and
W. H. Gray to establish missions among the Cayuse and
Nez Perce tribes.
When Fathers F. N. Blanchet and Modeste Demers
reached Fort Vancouver in November, 1838, they were
told about the Nez Perces.
The Canadians who live among them for the purpose of obtaining the
beaver fur, have for a long time spoken to them of the black robes
the chiefs of the French. Naturally good, mild and full of respect
for the prayer to the Master of life, they anxiously desire that priests
may come to instruct them, and make known to them the religion of
the French. 16
Their praiseworthy desire had to be denied because there
were no priests to send.
The Nez Perces were visited by Father De Smet in
1840. 17 On Christmas Day of 1841, De Smet baptized
AMONG THE COEUR D'ALENES AND NE2 PERCYS 143
thirty Nez Perces and their chief, and for the whole year
of 1841 De Smet reported eighty baptisms among the
Nez Perces. 18 The Nez Perces were visited quite regularly
after the establishment of Sacred Heart Mission among
the Coeur d'Alenes. As this arrangement, however, did
not satisfy them, they continued to beg for their own
missionary. They renewed their petition in 1849 to the
Bishop of "Walla Walla, His Excellency, Augustine Mag-
liore Blanchet. The petition had to be denied again
owing to the dearth of men.
During the unsettled years which followed the Whit-
man Massacre, although the question of a Nez Perce
mission was often mooted, nothing was accomplished.
Finally, in 1867, Bishop Augustine M. Blanchet asked
Father Urban Grassi: "Will you be able to accept Lap-
way, if it is offered to you? I hope you will." 19 Father
Grassi promised to do what he could.
Father Joseph Cataldo and Brother Achille Carf agno
were sent to take charge of a little government day
school at Lapwai in October, 1867. But such opposition
had been stirred up against a Catholic priest's teaching
in a government school that Father Cataldo had to alter
his plans. While awaiting a change of spirit among the
Indians, he built a little frame church for the whites in
Lewiston.
The first rude church for the Indians was built in the
beginning of 1868. Here, on the north bank of the
Clearwater River, about a mile above the Lapwai Indian
Agency, Father Cataldo and three miners from Lewiston,
erected a rough log building. The work of Cataldo with
the Nez Perces of Chief Stuptup's camp, where the
church was located, was only mildly successful. There
was never any trouble about instructing the Indians,
144 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
young and old, but there was determined opposition by
the head men of the tribe to baptizing those instructed.
Their main objection was the fact that the small num-
ber of Catholics would make it difficult for them to re-
main good amidst so much evil and disorder* Further-
more, the converts wanted a priest to live with them
constantly. Actually, Father Cataldo had been living
in Lewiston and only spending a few months with the
Indians. The priest finally left Stuptup's camp and re-
turned to Lewiston. From here he began visiting another
Indian camp about a mile up the river. A somewhat
greater response greeted his efforts in this new place, but
nothing in proportion to the labor entailed, so, by 1870,
it had been agreed to abandon this apparently futile field
of labor.
Father Cataldo left the Nez Perces in the summer of
1870 to go to the mission among the Yakimas. After a
three or four weeks* visit there, he proceeded to Sacred
Heart Mission among the Coeur d'Alenes. The Nez
Perces had been deserted temporarily to give them an
opportunity to appreciate the priest in his absence, since
they had not responded when he was with them. The
treatment proved effective.
Joseph Lakosken came to Sacred Heart Mission in
October, 1871, as a messenger sent by some of the Nez
Perce chiefs to beg the priest to return and remain with
them:
"Blackgown," said he, "you know I am the only man whom you
baptized among the Nez Perces; that is the reason why the chiefs
sent me here. Blackgown, our people did not listen to you, or rather
to God, for more than two years, and then you left us; but now all
are sorry; they want you back, and they promise to be baptized. You
must go at once, or you will lose most of your people; for now at the
agency all are preachers: the agent is a preacher, his father is a
AMONG THE COEUR D'ALENES AND NEZ PERCYS 145
preacher; Mr. Spaulding, who is expected to return is a preacher; the
teacher is a preacher; and all try to have the Catholics turn Protes-
tant; so come at once/' 20
The fears expressed by the good Indian were not without
foundation. John B. Monteith, the agent to whom
reference is made, was to cause the Jesuits endless trouble
during the first years of the mission. Particularly did
he play havoc with the Christian Indians while the priests
were absent.
Finally, in April, 1872, Father Cataldo returned to
Lewiston. He was astounded to see a large crowd of
Indians at Mass the day after his arrival. Following the
Mass, Father gathered the Indians in the church to recite
the prayers in their native tongue. Although he had
never taught the adults the prayers, he found that, much
to his surprise, they knew them all. There was no doubt
of their fine dispositions for receiving baptism. After
instructing the whole group in their camp about a mile
above Lewiston, Father decided they were ready to be
received into the church. The solemn baptism of the
group took place on May 14, 1872; five days later, seven
more were baptized; and on May 30, another eighteen.
These were mere beginnings. From all sides came re-
quests for reception into the church. Young and old,
Protestants, pagans, and Indian preachers were con-
verted.
This conversion of the Indians in such numbers could
hardly go on without opposition. In 1 873, the Protestant
preachers began a systematically organized opposition.
Letters were written to the Indian Commissioner asking
that the Catholics be barred from the reservation; the
Christian converts were subjected to constant persecu-
146 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
tion, sometimes petty, sometimes serious; the missionary,
also came in for his share.
One of the preachers, a white man, contrived to meet Father
Cataldo, and told him he should leave and not return to the reserva-
tion, since the President had given the mission to the Presbyterians.
The priest smiling, said, "Well, Mr. N. . . do you believe that Presi-
dent Grant is greater than Almighty God? I do believe that President
Grant sent you; but I also believe that Almighty God sent me/* The
preacher then shook hands with the priest and went his way. 21
The church for the Catholic Nez Perces was built in
1874. First, permission to build had to be obtained from
Washington, D. C. Then, money was collected from the
whites in Lewiston, from the Coeur d'Alene Indians, and
even from the Chinamen working in the mines:
They all felt that it* was a protest against bigotry and persecution of
the Catholic Indians. An old English gentleman gave $20 with the
remark, "Fr. Cataldo, I am neither a Catholic nor a friend of the
Indians. If I were to consult my own feelings, I would rather give
the $20 for ammunition to shoot the Indians; but I wish to support
religious freedom. Tell my friend [N.], the preacher, that I am a
Presbyterian; and if he troubles your Indians again, come and I will
give you another $20." 22
It is not surprising that with such help from all parties,
the little church was finished by September 8, 1874.
Their beautiful church was a source of joy and con-
solation to the Indians, but they were still unhappy
without a regular pastor. Moreover, they feared that
they would soon drift back into their old infidel practices
and superstitions if there was no priest among them.
Hence, they never ceased asking for a missionary. They
asked Father Joseph Giorda, Superior-General of the
Missions; they asked James Razzini, Visitor-General of
the Missions; they asked the Very Reverend Father Peter
AMONG THE COEUR D'ALENES AND NEZ PERCfiS 147
Beckx, General of the Society of Jesus; finally, in 1875,
they begged His Holiness, Pope Pius IX, to send them a
Father. This time their fervor and patience were re-
warded.
Father Anthony Morvillo arrived on November 2,
1875, the first resident missionary among the Nez Perces.
The mission of which Father Morvillo now took charge
consisted of one church with two little rooms in the
back. For some years these rooms served as sacristy, din-
ing room, kitchen, office, parlor, and sleeping quarters.
Here Father Morvillo began to study the Nez Perce lan-
guage, a subject on which he was later to become an
authority.
The arrival of the missionary gave the Indians new
hope. They began to build their log huts around the
church and soon there was a little village at the mission.
More of the Indians began to take up farming and others
to enlarge their farms. Gambling and drunkenness were
less and less apparent among them. The presence of the
priest and the organization of their police force, similar
to the "Soldiers of the Sacred Heart" among the Coeur
d'Alenes, was responsible for this improvement. A school
building had been started in the early days but never
finished. The classes that were conducted were gathered
in the church.
At this point in its growth, surrounded by unsympa-
thetic Protestants and harassed by petty persecutions as
it was, still another obstacle was thrown in the path of
St. Joseph's Mission. It was Chief Joseph's Nez Perce
War of 1877. There were only four Catholic Nez Perce
Indians who participated in this war. More serious were
the slanders spread against Father Cataldo. The Indians
in the Umatilla district of eastern Oregon had invited
148 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Father Cataldo to give them a series of sermons in Feb-
ruary, 1877. The priest's talks were blessed, with all the
Catholic neophytes receiving the sacraments and about
twenty infidels being converted. By purest chance it
happened that Young Joseph, second chief of the Nez
Perces, was in the Umatilla district at this same time
attempting to stir up feeling for the Nez Perces of Chief
Joseph who had determined to fight the United States,
Naturally, those who desired to do so could and readily
did misconstrue the presence of Father Cataldo. When
the question arose of taking action against the priest for
this alleged treacherous conduct, there was such a furious
outburst of public opinion in Lewiston that the Indian
Agent feared to push the matter.
Although the Catholic Indians, with the mentioned
exceptions, did not join in the war, yet the evil conse-
quences touched all, Catholic and non-Catholic. The
war was a check
... on the progress of religion among the Indians of the tribe. There
was engendered in the infidels a feeling of bitterness against every-
thing that came from the whites, even their religion, while partly
for a like reason, and partly because of the distraction caused by the
war and its consequences, many of the Catholic Indians slackened in
their fervor, and this lukewarmness paved the way, later on, for some
apostasies. However, a considerable number remained faithful and
fervent, and conversions continued for some years. 23
The education of the Indians at St. Joseph's had not
been neglected, although the means for a real school
could not be collected for many years. Meanwhile, the
children were sent to the schools at Sacred Heart Mission
and St. Francis Regis' Mission, near, Colville, It was not
until August, 1902, that the construction of a school be-
gan. Mother Drexel, His Excellency, A. J. Glorieux, and
AMONG THE COEUR D'ALENES AND NEZ PERCYS 149
Father Aloysius Soer contributed the money needed. 24
The school was put under the care of the Sisters of St.
Joseph of Tipton, Pennsylvania. Father Cataldo had to
travel East in 1904 to beg for more Sisters to help the
three who were wearing themselves out in their attempt
to operate the school alone. He returned with twelve
postulants for the Sisters of St. Joseph at Slickpoo, Idaho.
Three years later forty young women had come to join
the Sisters at the mission.
In the course of a few years some white orphaned
children had been taken into the school. At the time,
this caused no little unpleasantness with those who in-
sisted that St. Joseph's was solely an Indian school. This
little difficulty had just been straightened out when the
whole school burned on August 27, 1916. Rough board
shacks were built immediately, and these were to serve
as home and school for Sisters and pupils for eight years.
The trials and problems of keeping 144 Indian children
in such a hovel defy description. Finally, in 1924, the
foundations for a new school were laid, thanks to money
sent by the Marquette League. But on October 4, 1925,
a more disastrous fire destroyed the rough shacks and
burned to death six of the little Indian boys who had
gone back to get their clothes. This terrible tragedy
evoked the sympathies of many Catholics throughout
the United States. By August 24, 1926, the venerable
Father Cataldo could write:
All the small donations continued to cheer us and through the
grace of God finally we finished the outside of the building and the
inside comfortable enough, though not finished, to put our boys in. 25
Through many sufferings and tribulations St. Joseph's
1 5 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
at last had a beautiful school for the orphans, white and
Indian.
The narrative of the mission's work paralleled quite
closely the fate of the school. As the younger generations
came into closer contact with the whites, who had been
admitted to the reservation in 1894, the piety of the
Indians grew less fervent. It was for this reason that such
tremendous efforts were expended to keep the school
open, since this was the bulwark of the children's faith.
Unfortunately, much harm was done in spite of these
heroic efforts. The annual report for 1912 was filled with
forebodings and regrets. The old Indians were faithful
but the young natives were picking up more of the white
man's "civilized evils." However, one must not conclude
from this that the mission was defunct. In 1927-28 two
new additions were built for the orphanage. This same
year there were about 15,000 communions. 26 Today the
mission and orphanage, nestling in the beautiful moun-
tains southeast of Lewiston, carry on the tradition begun
by De Smet a hundred years ago.
St. Joseph's Mission has a record of spiritual work ac-
complished which would console the heart of the most
exacting. The story of the excursions undertaken, places
visited, people converted, and churches begun by the
Fathers living at the Nez Perce mission is one of the more
impressive pages in this sketch of the Jesuits in the
Northwest. St. Joseph's Mission and the Jesuit parish in
Lewiston have a history closely united. Cataldo had
come in 1867 to open a mission among the Nez Perces,
but owing to the ill feeling then current among the
Indians, he actually began his work among the whites in
Lewiston. When the first Indian mission was built,
miners from Lewiston did the building. Technically,
AMONG THE COEUR D'ALENES AND NEZ PERCYS 151
however, once the mission was established, Lewiston be-
came a station administered by priests attached to St.
Joseph's. This station of St. Stanislaus became greater
than the parent house if we judge from the number of
faithful. The Jesuits were instrumental in bringing the
Sisters of St. Joseph to Lewiston to operate a hospital;
the priests built up a flourishing parish, with a beautiful
church, school, and recreation center.
Other settlements not so easily reached were visited
regularly. Cataldo was in Pomeroy, Walla Walla, Col-
fax, and Uniontown when these towns and cities were
scarcely more than scattered settlements. Tekoa and
Clarkston housed the early Fathers on their regular
rounds. The historic grounds where Chief Joseph re-
pulsed the white soldiers near Cottonwood and Grange-
ville were later the scene of spiritual conquests by the
sons of the Company of Jesus. Camas Prairie, Gold
Springs, Russell, and Nezperce were not neglected by
the tireless missionaries. The list grew as the years went
by. Fletcher, Mohler, Melrose, Lapwai, and Winchester
became objects of the Jesuits* solicitude. Spalding, Le-
land, Arrow, Peck, Ruebens, and Kippen were also
among the stations visited at different times. The little
German settlement at Keuterville had its desire for a
missionary fulfilled. St. Rose's at Culdesac was built
by the Catholics under the supervision of their Jesuit
pastors. Woodside and the mining district of Orofino
had reason to be grateful, for they, too, were remembered
by the missionaries at large.
The role played by the Company of Jesus in these
many places varied. Sometimes they were merely the
pioneers opening the country for Christ; sometimes they
were responsible for the churches built by the pious
1 52 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Catholics; and sometimes they filled the role of emer-
gency men working for a while until a regular pastor
could be found. As each one of these scattered villages
reached a condition meriting a resident shepherd, the
Jesuits readily withdrew in favor of a zealous diocesan
priest.
PACIFIC
CHAPTER VII
Earrg Missions in tne Inland Empire
ST. PAUL'S MISSION AT KETTLE FALLS
ST. PAUL'S MISSION AT KETTLE FALLS, AFTER ST. IGNA-
tius' among the Kalispels, was the oldest Jesuit mission
in "Washington. Father Ravalli had been sent to the Falls
to construct a rough chapel in 1845. This action re-
sulted from a rumor that the Presbyterian mission under
Elkanah Walker, located in Walker's Prairie, was about
to begin proselytizing the Kettle Falls Indians. St. Paul's,
then, was built to forestall this threatened "Protestant
invasion/ 5
The rude chapel, hastily erected by Ravalli in 1845,
was replaced by Joset with a much more substantial
structure in 1 847. The same year St. Paul's welcomed its
first resident missionary, who was to work with great
diligence for these Indians until 1851. He was Father
Peter De Vos. Imprudent work and heart-rending dis-
appointments forced his withdrawal from the mission.
The narrative is resumed with the return of Father
Joseph Joset in 1851. He began work among a tribe
that had been almost entirely converted by the tireless
De Vos, as were also the whites and half -breeds, of the
Hudson's Bay post who were exemplary Catholics in
these early days. This year Joset was joined at St. Paul's
by Father Louis Vercruysse who had beeto working with
the Canadians and half-breeds at St. Francis Regis'
153
154 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
located near present Chewelah. After Vercruysse's re-
moval, this station was visited regularly by one of the
priests from St. Paul's until the little church at Chewelah
was burned by the settlers sometime after 1851.
The two Fathers were stationed at St. Paul's at a very
difficult time, yet a great harvest of souls was garnered by
reason of their incredible labors when smallpox ravaged
the tribe during 1853-54, the infection having been
brought into the Indian camp by a native who had been
visiting the Sanpoil tribe. Father Joset tried to prevent
the spread of the terrible disease by forbidding the man's
entry into the mission camp, but this measure was in
vain. The resourceful priest narrates his next action:
There was no doctor in the country, and no vaccine to be had; as the
man was of a very good constitution, the father took the matter
from him and inoculated first his wife and children and everyone
escaped the infection: the father had never done such [a] thing
before [since] he was no doctor: but a missioner in such cir-
cumstances must improvise himself a doctor. Camp after camp
succeeding one another to the church the sickness lasted almost one
year: generally those who would mind the recommendations of the
priest escaped and bear the signs of the pox: but many would not
listen and paid with their life. 1
"Doctors of their bodies," and even more, "doctors of
their souls," were titles well merited by the priests during
this epidemic. Those who were dying were never neg-
lected if it were possible to reach them. Long rides on
horseback, narrow escapes from death by drowning or
freezing or starving were routine risks for this year.
Terrible as the raging disease had been, it was profit-
able because of the souls gained to God when they were
at death's door. Quite different effects followed the
pseudo-revelations of several dreamers who plagued the
EARLY MISSIONS IN THE INLAND EMPIRE 1 5 5
tribe at this same period. It became almost the vogue to
have visions and conversations with the angels. The
credulous Indians were difficult people to convince of
their delusion. Fortunately, the tribe remained firm in
its faith and constant in attendance at church and ap-
proach to the sacraments.
The "dreamers" had not injured the faith of the na-
tives appreciably, but liquor was to accomplish the task.
It was about 1854 when two white men built a saloon at
a place which had to be passed by all coming from the
valley to church.
It soon had its effect: the settlers continued to come to church
every Sunday but they began to pretend that their horses could not
well stand to wait for the afternoon service, but they stood well at
the door of the saloon, and the Indians soon followed the example;
and what was worst, some of the more influential chiefs began, too,
to drink. It was a great drawback. 2
The discovery of gold in the district in 1855 sealed
the doom of the mission. The crowds of adventurers who
flocked into the country aggravated an already trying
condition. These venturesome souls, with gold their only
god, convinced the Jesuit superiors that the extreme
shortage of priests and countless cries for help in more
promising fields did not warrant the further mainte-
nance of the mission of St. Paul. Consequently, this
pioneer station was temporarily closed in 1859. 3 The
general craze for gold made any spiritual labor fore-
doomed to failure. Moreover, the year the mission was
suppressed, Father Ravalli had become involved in debt
through an ambitious scheme of building a church for
the whites in the valley. The church was abandoned and
the mission closed. The Indians and the whites, par-
ticularly the soldiers at Fort Colville, were visited during
1 5 6 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
the four-year interim by Father Joset who had been
sent back to the Coeur d'Alene mission in 1857 to save
it from abandonment. The soldiers at Fort Colville, of
whom many were Irish, built a church during the four
years that the mission was suppressed.
ST. FRANCIS REGIS' MISSION
The faith of the soldiers and the improved feeling
among the Indians induced Father Joseph Giorda to
reopen the mission in 1863. This was one of the first
official acts of the "Second Founder of the Rocky Moun-
tain Mission." Joset returned to the Indians at St. Paul's
and Father Menetrey to the Church of the Immaculate
Conception near the fort. Six years later, Fathers Grassi
and Joseph Bandini established a little chapel among the
Stlacken about fifteen miles down the river from St.
Paul's. Although they had come in response to the ex-
plicit invitation of the chief, the mission failed badly.
This same year Father Grassi bought a plot of ground
about halfway between St. Paul's at Kettle Falls, and
Immaculate Conception, just east of Colville. The
Jesuits lived here from 1869 to 1873. The advent of the
whites, with the resultant change in conditions for In-
dians, whites, and missionaries, had determined Father
Grassi to locate the mission of St. Francis Regis at this
central point. Furthermore, the Indian children now
needed special attention and a formal education. Hence,
in 1873, when the four Sisters of Providence arrived to
conduct the school, the mission was moved about a half
a mile west of its present location. St. Francis Regis'
Mission was to absorb most of the work conducted for-
merly from the surrounding stations, thus to become
EARLY MISSIONS IN THE INLAND EMPIRE 1 57
one of the three focal points of future Jesuit expansion
in Washington.
The temporary log church at the new mission was
built by the Indians in 1873. The four Providence Sisters
arrived on September 20 to take charge of the school.
The success of their efforts may be judged from the
report of the Indian agent for the following year:
. . . school was opened on the 1st of October, in charge of the Sisters
of Charity. The progress made was gratifying in every respect,
greatly exceeding my most sanguine expectations. Parents readily
availed themselves of the opportunity of sending their children to
school, and the children have shown great aptness in learning. 4
This first report was a prelude to all those that were to
come. The same system of instruction that obtained in
the other contract schools was followed at Colville, and
year after year the official reports attest its complete
success.
The work of the Fathers does not escape a word of
official commendation:
The self-sacrificing devotion of Jesuit Fathers to their flock renders
the work of the Indian Agent comparatively easy, and to their in-
fluence more than to any other are we indebted for the long peace
that has prevailed on this frontier. 5
This peace for which the Jesuits strove was a boon to
religion. By 1 879 a new church was under construction. 6
This beautiful house of prayer was to be the setting for
the colorful functions of the church which the Indians
loved so much. The "Christ Dead Procession/* elaborate
Corpus Christi processions, High Mass with the Indians'
beautiful singing, the huge bonfire on Christmas Eve,
and the solemn services of Good Friday were all linked
indelibly with their church in the minds of the Indians.
1 5 8 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Their house of prayer was destroyed by fire on Christ-
mas Eve, 1888, and for many years the boys' recreation
hall had to serve as the church.
The school for boys at Colville followed nearly the
same course we have seen in the other missions. The
withdrawal of government aid in the 1890's was a blow
to the flourishing school at St. Francis Regis', but the
struggle for existence went on unabated. The real de-
cline, though, began about 1905 with frequent instances
of runaway boys. As more white boys entered the school,
racial hatred became apparent, for the white boys re-
fused to associate with the Indians. Withdrawal and
running away became an increasingly difficult problem.
Finally, on September 1, 1908, the boys' school was
closed. 7 The step was taken because the Fathers thought
it possible to do more good by frequently visiting the
Indians and whites who lived in the immense district
dependent on St. Francis Regis'. The mission stations
visited by the Fathers were spread from the eastern
boundary of Washington to the Cascade Mountains, and
from the Canadian boundary to a point about thirty-five
miles north of Spokane. By 1916, when there was but
one priest for this immense district, it became evident
that the Indians would be lost to the faith if there was
not made some provision for their early Christian educa-
tion. Hence, in 1917 the school for Indian boys was re-
opened on a greatly reduced scale. It was practically
certain that the school would have a desperate battle to
reach even mild prosperity. This second well-meant but
exceedingly handicapped venture ended in 1924. The
school simply could not be operated without financial
help, which was not forthcoming.
The years of St. Francis Regis' were much like those
EARLY MISSIONS IN THE INLAND EMPIRE 1 59
of the other Indian missions. Yet the variety of incidents
and the appearance of the unexpected make the story of
St. Francis Regis' one of the most colorful and fasci-
nating in the annals of the Rocky Mountain Mission.
There was, for example, the incident in 1882 when a
threatened massacre of the whites was prevented by
Father Caruana. An Indian had been arrested and tried
for murder. After he was condemned, the settlers around
Colville feared a general retaliatory attack by the con-
demned man's relatives. Father was called to console the
prisoner and prepare him for death; the relatives were
assured by the priest that he would accompany the
young man on the appointed day and that he would,
moreover, claim the body after the hanging so that it
might be buried by the relatives. The Indian died joy-
fully and the Father f ulfilled a bargain which he piously
hoped he would never have to do again. This was the
first execution ever witnessed by Father Joseph Caruana. 8
St. Francis Regis' was also the scene of Father Louis
Ruellan's death in 1885. Father Ruellan was one of the
most promising men on the mission. He had done splen-
did work in Spokane among rich and poor and was be-
loved by all. In spite of his recent arrival on the mission,
and in spite of his relatively youthful years, he had been
appointed vice-superior of all the Rocky Mountain
Mission during Father Joseph Cataldo's journey to Eu-
rope in 1884-85. But the young priest had undermined
his health by overwork and excessive mortifications.
Hence, when illness struck, he had no strength to fight
off pneumonia. He passed to a better life on January 7,
1885. His last whispered words were a magnificent pic-
ture of his soul, "I had come for the sanctification of my
brothers, but I was not good enough." 9 He had immo-
1 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
lated his life in a few short years of feverish labor and
yet he thought himself "not good enough." Men like
him are the reasons why the early missions went on in the
face of what might easily have proved crushing obstacles.
The same spirit of selflessness motivated the Fathers
at the mission while influenza ravaged the tribe in 1918.
It takes no special imaginings to fill in the brief entries
in the records. Constantly the missionaries were going
about to console the dying, to visit the sick, to bury the
dead, to help fatherless families, and to care for orphaned
children. The following passage of the Protestant his-
torian, Francis Parkman, was written of the Jesuits labor-
ing in Canada in the 1600's; it might well have been
ascribed to the Jesuits at St. Francis Regis' in the 1900's:
. . . toiling on foot from one infected town to another, wading
through the sodden snow, under the bare and dripping forests,
drenched with incessant rains, till they descried at length through the
storm the clustered dwellings of some barbarous hamlet, when we
see them entering, one after another, these wretched abodes of
misery and darkness, and all for one sole end, the baptism of the sick
and dying ... we must needs admire the self-sacrificing zeal with
which it was pursued. 10
Day after day, for weeks on end, this story of tireless
work is written.
What has become of this hub of spiritual activity?
Year by year, as more churches and chapels were built
for the tribes and people who formerly came to St.
Regis', the mother mission declined. Today, it stands on
a hill overlooking Colville Valley, but it is not the St.
Regis' we have seen. There is no school, there is no
church; these have been destroyed by fire. There is only
a residence for the Jesuits who still supply the stations
and churches for miles on all sides. St. Regis' lives in the
EARLY MISSIONS IN THE INLAND EMPIRE 161
memories of the past, while the offspring of the mission
carry on the work of the present.
The work prosecuted from St. Francis Regis' could be
simply described with these words: the Jesuits went every
place, north, east, south, and west, from Idaho to the
Cascade Mountains and from British Columbia to Clay-
ton, north of Spokane. In this vast field they worked
among Indians and whites. There are scarcely any towns
in the district which were not visited by the Fathers at
some time or other. There are few places in this extended
area which today boast of a church that have not the
Jesuits to thank for this blessing.
The Catholic history of the region along the Upper
Columbia began with the visit of Blanchet and Demers
in 1838, and the subsequent missionary expeditions of
Demers alone. The great Jesuit mission organizer, Peter
De Smet, visited this whole region in 1841 and 1842.
The log chapel at Kettle Falls was built in 1845. Even
before this the natives had come in contact with the
Fathers at St. Ignatius on the Clark Fork River near
present Cusick, Washington. Father Louis Vercruysse
worked among the Cree half-breeds near present Chewe-
lah from 1848 to 185 1, when he joined Joset at St. Paul's
near the Kettle Falls of the Columbia. So, it was from
earliest days that the Jesuits were spread widely in this
vicinity.
The removal of St. Francis Regis' in 1869 from the
neighborhood of Chewelah to its present location be-
tween Colville and the Kettle Falls was the beginning of
an intensified missionary activity through the length and
breadth of northern Washington. From St. Regis', the
Fathers traveled to the Kalispels, among whom De Smet
had founded the original St. Ignatius' Mission. The
1 62 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Kootenai Indians, living in northwestern Montana and
southern Canada, were visited regularly. By 1907, the
stations to which the Jesuits ministered had grown into
a formidable list. Periodically, the Fathers made ex-
tended trips down the Columbia River. They worked
in individual Indian camps, in Indian villages, and in
white settlements. These isolated journeys resulted even-
tually in churches at Fruitland, Hunters, and Daisy.
North from St. Regis' the Jesuits spread f anlike to reach
Curlew, Molson, Oroville, Tonasket, on the extreme
west; Orient and Rossland, British Columbia, in the cen-
ter; Bossburg and Northport to the east. Going south-
east from the mission, the Fathers worked in Colville,
Cusick, and Newport; due south they tended the whole
Colville Valley as far as Loon Lake and Clayton; to the
southwest there were Omak, Okanogan, and Chelan.
This quick survey is by no means complete. To finish
the list of places one would have to put down all points
in between those mentioned.
ST. MARY'S MISSION (OKANOGAN)
The district of the Okinagans was the scene of the
labors of Father Stephen de Rouge, one of the great,
though little known, Jesuit missionaries in Washington.
His special mission of St. Mary's, at Omak, grew from
his work in this country and the work of several other
very capable Jesuits who had preceded him. The settle-
ments and tribes on the western side of the Columbia
had been visited as early as 1842 by De Smet. Later, they
were occasionally visited by the Jesuits stationed on the
Colville mission, or sometimes even by those on the
Yakima mission.
EARLY MISSIONS IN THE INLAND EMPIRE 163
Here Father James Vanzina had the unpleasant experi-
ence of a narrow escape from stabbing at the hands of
an Indian. Father was preaching to the tribe at the time
the attempt on his life was made. 11 It was with these
same Indians that Father de Rouge was to do so much
spiritual good in later years.
Father Urban Grassi had been the pioneer missionary
in north central Washington, He had made his first visit
to the Chelan country in 1873. 12 The journey of the
following year among these same tribes was filled with
excitement:
On the way I met various people who suggested that I should not go,
that I would be beaten, what Ninusize had done about here and
there wherever there were any who had been baptized and had forced
them to abandon the prayer and to throw away the medal and cross
which they had hanging from their necks. My campanion was terri-
fied, and when we arrived he asked me to permit him to put up his
tent on this side of the Mitgan River, the Cilans being on the other
side of the river. ... I permitted him to do this, while I, without
dismounting from my horse, crossed the river and went directly to
the tent of the chief. The tent was full of people of every age and
both sexes; when I saw Ninusize, I advanced, offered him my hand,
but he let me wait a long time before giving me his; with a ferocious
face he asked me savagely whether I had been sent from "Washington;
I answered, no, but that I had been sent from God; . . . 1S
Contrary to what one might expect after this hostile
reception, Father Grassi succeeded in softening the
chief's bitter attitude before the end of the visit. Some
weeks later, when Grassi met the Chelans at their fishing
camp, he found that practically all of his work had been
in vain. Someone had told the chief that Father Grassi
was in league with the white officials. This time Grassi
had a real struggle to convince the chief and the rest of
1 64 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
the tribe of his sincere motive. His third visit ended with
the baptism of four members of the tribe.
The repetition of such visits had the effect at least of
accustoming the Indians to the sight of the blackrobes.
The frigid silence was broken by the time De Rouge
took up the work which was to fill his life. A letter of
May, 1886, gives some notion of his labors and the fruit
they bore:
After spending a few weeks at Colville, I am again among the
Okanagan Indians. The journeying was laborious the flood waters
and the wretched roads, without the aid of an Indian lad whom I
took with me, we would not have been able to progress. . . . This poor
lad has performed wonders of distress and valor to surmount the
obstacles, and although he is only sixteen, he is worth much more
than many of more mature age. When we came to crossing the
river, there was no canoe to be found on our side, but there was a
chance of finding one on the other side. The boy did not hesitate a
second; he went off with his axe in search of a tree trunk; he pushed
a piece of the tree he had found into the water, with three strokes
of his hatchet he made an oar, rowed his way across the terrible cur-
rent, and landed safe and sound on the other side.
Half an hour afterwards the cry of the lad announced to us his
arrival; he had a canoe and sturdily labored to remount the rushing
current. In the meantime supper was prepared, of which it is not
easy to give an idea. Then everything was put in the canoe, hollowed
out of a tree-trunk, in order to carry them across to the new mission.
The horses were pushed into the river, and we entered the canoe and
found ourselves on the opposite side of the river. 14
The beginning of this excursion was to presage what
was to follow. When he had returned, the missionary
could report a successful trip, and on the next journey
he baptized in one day eleven of the Chelan Indians. It
was also on this occasion that De Rouge bought the log
hut which was the forerunner of St. Mary's Mission,
Omak. 15 Gradually superstition and prejudice were
EARLY MISSIONS IN THE INLAND EMPIRE 1 6 5
broken, and tentative plans for a permanent mission were
drawn up.
Father de Rouge made an extended trip throughout
the district in August and September of 1 8 8 6. The week
before he left Colville for the Columbia tribes, he made
a brief journey through the white settlements beyond
the reservation:
My purpose was first of all to visit the new colonies which little by
little are coming to populate the countryside, and then to have a
petition to the Secretary of the Interior drawn up against those
scoundrels who sell brandy to the poor Indians. They are a breed of
men without honor and without laws, who buy cows, horses, etc.
for a few glasses of liquor. A drunken savage is a demon; he smashes,
tears up, murders anyone at all. 16
Father de Rouge was fighting for the preservation of his
home mission at Colville and for the prevention of a
similarly sad fate for his proposed mission among the
Okinagans.
The missionary's journey began on August 2 and was
to last thirty-eight days. The diarist notes for August 5 :
Today we arrived rather late at a little encampment of Indians,
almost all Christians, who gave us a warm welcome. All those who
had been baptized came to prayers with us. 17
Two days later he writes:
Some Indians, seeing that my provisions are almost exhausted, re-
plenished me. An old woman gave me some fruit in a birchbark bag;
another, a little grain; a third, a piece of dried salmon; another, a few
pieces of deer meat dried in the sun. 18
He notes on August 19 :
I travelled these past days with fever, and with difficulty was able
to arrive at Ellensburg, a tiny city which sprang up four years ago,
after the manner of American cities. 19
1 66 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Here he rested a day with Father Louis Parodi who had
been working with these Indians and whites for some
years. The next day, De Rouge went by train to Yakima
where he spent ten days recovering from the fever and
visiting with his countryman, Father Victor Garrand.
The journey home was marred by his losing the trail
occasionally, but by September 8, De Rouge was safe
at St. Francis Regis'.
This ceaseless journeying among his beloved Indians
convinced De Rouge of the need for a mission. There
was no money at hand to carry out his project, so he
collected the necessary funds while in France for his
tertianship in 1888-89. 20 The money thus secured made
possible the erection of a better building at the new
location of St. Mary's on Omak Creek, whither De
Rouge had moved the mission in 1887.
St. Mary's became the wintering place for the mis-
sionary. Here the Indians requested a school. A day
school was opened, with Indian catechists taking care
of the children in the camp. This system was a great
step forward but it became obvious that a day school
would not suffice; some children had to be taken as
boarders and more buildings were needed. 21
There were one hundred children enrolled in the two
schools the boys* and the girls' by 1916. A kinder-
garten was opened and a hospital built. The little log hut
had grown into a village.
The girls' school was conducted in great part by
generous women volunteers, the boys' school by young
men who gave their lives to this work or who were pre-
paring for the priesthood. These volunteer teachers made
it possible for the school to operate on very limited
means. What money there was came from the Bureau
EARLY MISSIONS IN THE INLAND EMPIRE 167
of Catholic Indian Missions and from an annuity be-
queathed to Father de Rouge by his mother. 22
The founding and operation of St. Mary's was a diffi-
cult task, but not so engrossing that De Rouge did not
continue to visit the neighboring settlements. His excur-
sions took him from Yakima to Rossland, British Colum-
bia, and all way points. Brewster, Okanogan, and Water-
ville were blessed by his labors. He was working in
Cashmere and Wenatchee long before they had outgrown
their infancies. These names, as usual, are mere indica-
tors of the work carried on from St. Mary's. For in-
stance, in 1889 De Rouge was listed as the missionary for
Colville and Umatilla one in northern Washington, the
other in northeastern Oregon. These tremendous dis-
tances which had to be covered by one man make the
narration of his labors a catalogue of names mere names
for those whose acquaintance with the country described
is gained solely from an armchair. One must see the
scorched plains, the towering crags, the spring rains, and
winter's ice; one must live on moss and rodents and be
harassed by the maddening insects, before it is possible
so much as to imagine what it meant to live, and travel,
and die, as these early Jesuits joyfully did in central
Washington.
CHAPTER VIII
Spokane Mission and tke Rise of
G[onza|a University
THE STORY OF JESUIT LABORERS IN SPOKANE AND THE
surrounding territory reaches back almost a century.
Father Peter De Smet mentions the Spokane Falls and
the Indians when he passed through the district on his
trip to Fort Vancouver in 1842. Father Louis Ver-
cruysse traveled along the trail from Walla Walla to
Colville in 1848. Missionary excursions of the Jesuits
from Cpeur d'Alene Mission to the Spokane tribes were
made frequently. Usually, accounts of such excursions
refer to any natives in the Spokane Valley or in the
country in general which lay west of Coeur d'Alene
Mission.
Father Joseph Caruana accompanied Father Giorda
on a visit in October of 1862 to the Spokane Indians,
then at their fishery on the Spokane Falls:
We remained there for about one month and through Fr. Giorda's
kindness, Fr. Caruana administered the Sacrament of Baptism to 17
(seventeen) Indian children and five adults at the large Indian camp
situated where is now the N[orthern] P[acific] Depot in Spokane
City. Not a single shanty could I then see on either side of the
Spokane River. 1
The missionaries were particularly interested at this
time in the Spokane Indians who lived in the camp of
Baptist Peone, northeast of present Spokane. A very
168
SPOKANE MISSION AND GON2AGA UNIVERSITY 1 69
rough shanty was built on Peone's Prairie by one of the
Jesuits from Coeur d'Alene Mission in 1864. 2 The fol-
lowing year Father Joseph Cataldo passed through Spo-
kane on the last stage of his journey from California to
Coeur d'Alene Mission:
We were travelling by what we called in those times Mullen Road and
one day about 1, p. M. we emerged from the woods into the Spokane
Prairie.
We travelled some few miles up the river, and there we found a
camp of Seltis (or Seltees) the chief of the Coeur d'Alene Indians,
whose mother was a Spokane. Seltees said many things about the
Spokane Indians and added, "that the Spokane Indians should be at-
tended by the Fathers because several of them were well disposed to-
wards the Catholic religion."
I took that word in my heart and began to think, to pray, and
then to speak about the Spokane Indians. 3
These few words of Chief Seltis were the seed from
which the Jesuit mission in Spokane would spring.
Father Cataldo became enamored of the idea of a mission
among the Spokanes. Finally, in September, 1866, he
came to spend the winter with the tribe and to build the
first log mission of St. Michael's. This first winter was
passed in teaching catechism every morning and after-
noon. As though this were not enough, the adults asked
for special classes, since they could not learn as rapidly
as the children:
So after a few days we began the night catechism school which grew
in number every night. And they got so interested, that they would
keep me till 10 and sometimes 11 o'clock, and sometimes I had to
dismiss them almost by force at half -past eleven. 4
There were some hundred baptisms as fruit of this win-
ter's labor. The spring of 1867, Cataldo departed for
St. Ignatius' Mission, Montana.
170 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Thenceforth, a priest spent every winter with the
Spokanes. In 1868, to replace the log hovel which was
later destroyed by fire, Father Grassi built a little church
and house. The mission prospered so much that the hos-
tility of the Protestants was thoroughly excited. To
counteract the strenuous efforts of the Protestants
among this tribe that once had been dominantly Protes-
tant, the Jesuits, in 1875, gave a two weeks' series of ser-
mons to the Spokanes. Many were strengthened in their
faith and several more were converted. Another build-
ing for use as a school was erected in 1880, during a visit
of several months which Cataldo made that year.
Father Cataldo, now superior-general of all the mis-
sions, ordered Father Philip Canestrelli to locate a land
claim for St. Michael's Mission, and another claim near
Spokane Falls, since the town would surely grow in
importance with the coming of the Northern Pacific.
These measures were taken in the winter of 1880-81. By
February 24, 1882, the Jesuits had fulfilled all the con-
ditions of purchase and only awaited the formal deed to
the property near the Spokane River.
Moreover, an additional half section of land was pur-
chased from the Northern Pacific and a quarter section
was claimed by Brother Bernard Cunningham as a home-
stead. These plots combined made five hundred and
eighty acres for the new St. Michael's Mission, which was
about two miles nearer Spokane Falls than the original
mission on Peone's Prairie. A log hut and a neat chapel
were built at the new mission site, and a cabin was erected
on the homestead claim as a legal residence for Brother
Cunningham.
From this spot, the Jesuits worked in the town of Spo-
kane Falls. The Fathers lived at St. Michael's and
SPOKANE MISSION AND GONZAGA UNIVERSITY 171
walked to and from town, sometimes making the round
trip three times in a single day. It was not long before
all realized that the future of the church was in Spokane
Falls and not at the mission. Consequently, the mission
was visited from Spokane until 1893. The Indians, by
this year, had scattered to the different neighboring
reservations where they were under the care of other
Jesuit missions. The spiritual labors of the Fathers now
centered around Spokane Falls and emanated from there
to many surrounding settlements.
Two important projects occupied the priests in these
early years: one was the establishment of a parish and a
parochial school in the town proper; the other was the
foundation of a boys' school conducted by the Jesuits
and located in the then sparsely settled section of the
town on the north side of the Spokane River.
Father Cataldo bought three lots on August 8, 1881.
Later he added two more lots adjoining the original three.
These five plots on present Main and Bernard streets
embraced the first Catholic center in Spokane proper. A
blacksmith shop was converted into the first church.
Here a congregation of a dozen was considered quite
large. However, by September, 1884, the little shanty
church was too small for the number of Catholics in
Spokane. Father Louis Ruellan undertook to collect the
necessary money for the new church. He begged from
all whom he visited, Catholic and non-Catholic alike.
While the priest begged, his good parishioners gave din-
ners and socials to help raise the money. 5 When plans
were rapidly maturing, Father Ruellan, weakened by
overwork and oppressed by his new duties as vice-su-
perior of all the missions during Father Cataldo's journey
to Europe, succumbed to pneumonia. This unexpected
172 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
intervention of God caused a momentary setback to the
plans for the new church.
Fortunately, Father Ruellan was succeeded by another
zealous Jesuit, Father Aloysius Jacquet. The new pastor
threw himself vigorously into the work at hand:
It was no easy task to collect money for the purpose as the Catholics
were few but I was helped also by non[-]Catholics and Jews who
helped me generously as well as the officers and soldiers of the 2 Forts
I attended and other places I attended. 6
No one escaped the persistent pleas of the universally
esteemed Father:
One day appealing to the Colonel in command at Fort Sherman for
assistance in this undertaking the latter tantalizingly replied: "But,
Father, I am not a Catholic; and what do I care for your church?"
Quick as a shot came the answer: "Colonel, neither do I care for
yours; but I need some money all the same." The reply was worth
ten or twenty dollars in gold. . . . 7
Such unflagging perseverance had its reward when the
beautiful Church of Our Lady of Lourdes was dedicated
by Bishop Junger on July 4, 1 8 8 6.
After the new church was dedicated, the former
church, the converted blacksmith shop, was made into
a school. St. Ignatius Preparatory School remained open
until 1892. In that year it was closed because of the
desire to concentrate all the boys at Gonzaga College,
and because of the increased enrollment in Our Lady of
Lourdes Parochial School.
Our Lady of Lourdes School had been built in 1 8 87-8 8
with money collected by Father Jacquet. This imposing
brick structure was blessed in August of 1888. Sisters of
the Holy Names were entrusted with the management
of the new school. The agreement under which the Sis-
SPOKANE MISSION AND GONZAGA UNIVERSITY 173
ters came to Spokane, provided that the parish would
care for all the expense of the school; moreover, the
Jesuits promised to give two lots on which the Sisters
might construct a college at some future time. That
these stipulations were agreeable may be judged from the
letter of the superioress-general:
Your letter of April 7th stipulating conditions was duly received.
Those that you propose are considered satisfactory and are hereby
accepted. The friendly relations which have always existed between
your esteemed Society and our Community leave no fears as to their
fulfillment. 8
The parish school flourished almost from its first day.
The completion of Holy Names Academy in 1891 and
the removal of the Sisters of Our Lady of Lourdes to the
new academy meant changing the parish school into a
day school only. Under this form it prospered until its
removal to the present location in 1 90 5 .
The educational work of the Jesuits in Spokane is
identified with Gonzaga University. The Fathers assisted
the Sisters of the Holy Names in Our Lady of Lourdes
Parochial School and later in Holy Names Academy, but
their real work was Gonzaga.
The contract for the bricks, which were to be made
on the property, was let in July, 1883. By mid-October
of the same year the foundations were finished. 9 Al-
though work was suspended during the winter until
June, 1884, the outside of the building was finished, and
covered by October. The building was not entirely
finished, inside and out, until April, 1886. Only at this
point was the deed for the property turned over to the
Jesuits. There had been certain unfriendly persons des-
perately trying to find some flaw by which the Jesuits*
174 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
property could be reclaimed. The completion of the
building removed their last hope. Furnishings had to be
brought from the East and the innumerable accessories
had to be checked and rechecked so that school did not
open until September 17, 1887.
The first year there were only a few students. One
reason for this was that Gonzaga was strictly a boarding
school. Any boys in Spokane Falls had to attend the
parochial school in town. There is no doubt, however,
that the limited numbers, supervised study, restricted
recreation, and the relative isolation of the new school
helped for greater concentration and more rapid prog-
ress in study* It was not too difficult for the Fathers to
introduce the European curriculum.
The recreation of the students seems quite naive to our
sophisticated generation. Horseback riding, boating,
swimming, and regular sports could be had without leav-
ing the property. Occasional picnics, as well as periodic
visits to Spokane Falls, were events that merited special
notice in the old chronicles. Such confinement and su-
pervision may seem peculiar to some, but there is some-
thing to be said for it. The boys were sent to Gonzaga
for character training as much as book learning. It is
quite common to read of some proud parent enjoining
the Jesuits "to make a man of my boy." Often enough
they did.
The enrollment had increased so steadily that a new
building was needed by 1897. Finally, the imposing new
structure was occupied on September 6, 1899. The new
school was one hundred and eighty-nine feet long and
four stories high. After the destruction of St. Ignatius'
College in the San Francisco earthquake, Gonzaga was,
SPOKANE MISSION AND GONZAGA UNIVERSITY 175
for a number of years, the greatest Catholic college of
the West.
Just five years later, another wing two hundred and
twenty-five feet long was added. The session of 1904-5
saw four hundred and thirteen registered students. This
constantly increasing student body forced the erection
of a new wing which was completed by October, 1904.
The history of the school for these years is the history
of any active Catholic college. There were years filled
with dramatic productions, concerts, academic displays,
debates, social gatherings, and athletics. There were
school heroes, such as Robert Monaghan, United States
Army, killed in action at Samoa; there were distinguished
visitors like William Jennings Bryan; and there were
school tragedies for instance, the typhoid epidemic that
carried off several students in 1906. Finally, of triumphs
there were many; of these, perhaps the greatest in early
years was Gonzaga's constitution as a university on June
21, 1912. This was a fitting crown to the labors of the
first quarter of a century.
Gonzaga became the center of Jesuit activity in the
city of Spokane. Besides their interest in Our Lady of
Lourdes and Gonzaga itself, the Jesuits donated the land
for the Academy of the Holy Names in 1890. This was
in fulfillment of the agreement originally signed in 1888.
The gift was gratefully acknowledged in these words:
I thank you for your missive, and earnestly hope & pray you will
never have cause to regret your generous line of conduct towards my
community. 10
Three Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis (Phila-
delphia Foundation) arrived in Spokane on August 22,
176 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
1890, to open an orphanage. They had come at the
request of Father Charles Mackin. Once arrived, they
were helped by him, and by the ever generous Mr. and
Mrs. James Monaghan, until the orphanage building
was finished in September.
Besides the invitations extended to the Sisters of the
Holy Names and to the Franciscans, the Fathers had in-
vited the Sisters of Charity of Providence to open a
hospital to fill a crying need in the new town of Spo-
kane Falls. In response to this pressing invitation, the
zealous Sisters opened their first hospital in Spokane in
1886.
Again, in 1905, His Excellency, Edward J. O'Dea,
Bishop of Nesqually, requested Father Charles Mackin
to supervise all arrangements attendant on the arrival
of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Spokane to open
a House of the Good Shepherd.
St. Joseph's Church had been finished by Father Leo-
pold van Gorp in the spring of 1890. The new church
was blessed by His Excellency, Aegidius Junger, Bishop
of Nesqually, May 16, 1890. The new parish was on the
north side of the river but some distance west of Gon-
zaga.
This year of 1890 was a milestone in Spokane's Catho-
lic history. On May 3, Father Cataldo offered to turn
over to Bishop Junger Our Lady of Lourdes Church and
School, the newly completed St. Joseph's Church, the
property on which these were built, three lots on the
South Hill where Sacred Heart Church now stands, three
lots for the future Cathedral and, finally an alley near
Our Lady of Lourdes which had been vacated and turned
over to the Jesuits:
SPOKANE MISSION AND GONZAGA UNIVERSITY 177
The above pieces of ground [wrote Father Cataldo] exclusively of
the buildings are worth at the present moment not less than on
hundred and twenty thousand dollars ($120,000,00). . . . 11
The final transfer of the property did not occur until
December 26. The delay was occasioned by the Jesuits'
attempt to make certain that their promises to the Holy
Names Sisters and to the Franciscan Sisters would be
fulfilled by those receiving the property. This contribu-
tion of the Society of Jesus to the Diocese marked the
withdrawal of the Jesuits from a great part of their
former pastoral work. They now began to develop their
Parish of St. Aloysius. A frame church was built in
1892. This building was moved and enlarged in 1900,
though the present impressive edifice was not dedicated
until 1911.
The Jesuits had begun working among the laborers in
Hilly ard as early as 1893. Two years later, the modest
but beautiful church of St. Patrick was dedicated.
Later, permission was given to build a church for the
Italians; Bishop O'Dea had agreed to this on January 3,
190 5. 12 At the same conference, the Jesuits were ap-
pointed temporary pastors of St. Anne's Parish. This
office was filled by Father James Rebmann until October,
1906. In November, too, of the same year, St. Francis
Xavier's Church was opened for the faithful of the
Lidgerwood district. Four years later, a fine parochial
school was finished. This excellent parish was under the
devoted care of Father Rebmann until 1923, when it
was given over to the diocesan clergy.
Gonzaga was also the center of Jesuits' activity in the
country surrounding Spokane. Long before the college
had been built, the Fathers made missionary excursions
from St. Michael's Mission to points near and far. After
178 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
the college was erected, the Fathers attached to the
faculty kept alive this tradition, some working in the
parishes in Spokane, others in outlying settlements. The
weekdays were spent in the classroom, but the free days
were devoted to carrying the consolations of religion to
less fortunate Catholics. Through the years, the work
done and the territory covered by these priest-professors
and by the missionaries at large was truly astonishing.
Father Aloysius Jacquet was easily the foremost of the
early traveling missionaries. His work in the towns and
settlements lying east of Spokane we have seen in con-
nection with his begging tours. Besides his endless mis-
sionary trips he lectured, wrote for newspapers, visited
the mining camps and soldiers* barracks. 13
From Spokane I began to attend the Coeur d'Alene Mining Camps in
Idaho, Murray, Osbotne, Eagle City, Wardner, Mullen, Burke, etc.,
then also Coeur d'Alene City, Rathdrum, Sand Point, always all
the time traveling on horseback. 14
The tradition begun by Father Jacquet was continued
by his successors. Father Aloysius Folchi was one of the
most tireless and most successful of the men following
Father Jacquet. Father Folchi worked in Umatilla and
in Wyoming before he died, but he is remembered best
in the towns between Spokane and British Columbia.
Valley, Chewelah, Newport, and Sandpoint were a few
of the places visited by this colorful missionary priest.
The older people of all this territory remember Father
Folchi's bag of toys and his horse, "Jack."
Whenever Father began one of his missionary jour-
neys, he was burdened with three traveling bags, one for
personal effects, one for vestments, and one full of toys.
He entered the homes and hearts of adults by means of
SPOKANE MISSION AND GONZAGA UNIVERSITY 179
his bag of toys and tricks for their children. Nothing
more delighted the busy priest than to spend an hour
with children gathered around him and crawling over
him. He was loved by the little ones and he loved to be
with them.
The three suitcases of Father Folchi were no more
famous than "Jack," the faithful horse. This animal had
grown old in the service of the missions and was thor-
. oughly reliable most of the time. However, one day
while jogging back from his missions southeast of Spo-
kane, Father Folchi lost his glasses. He dismounted to
find the precious spectacles, and after a short search,
triumphantly replaced the much-sought-after object.
Meanwhile, "Jack 5 ' had trotted ahead a short distance.
No amount of coaxing or cajoling could entice the horse
to approach. "Jack" stayed just a little ahead of the
missionary for the whole seventeen miles to Spokane.
Fortunately for Father Folchi, and for "Jack," these
temperamental flurries were unusual.
Father's missionary field was in great part coextensive
with the land traversed by the Spokane Falls and North-
ern Railroad. It was understood by all employees that
Father Folchi had a standing permission to ride on any
train and to stop any train whatsoever, either to get off
or get on. It was not at all unusual for a freight train in
the wilds of northern "Washington to be flagged by a
little black-clad figure who would clamber into the
caboose carrying the three inevitable suitcases. Payment
for these privileges was made by filling the post of
"Company Chaplain." Father Folchi was expected to
administer the pledge to the railroaders who frequently
had a strong propensity toward excessive drinking.
Despite all the humorous tales that are told on him, the
1 8 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
fact remains that Father Folchi performed invaluable
service in the northern part of the state. He instructed
and baptized, he visited and consoled the faithful, he
built churches and, where there could be no church, he
faithfully celebrated Holy Mass in the home of some
good Catholic. The record of his mission stations con-
tains as many names of private homes as names of towns
and villages. He sought souls, going wherever they could
be found.
The towns west of Spokane were also visited by the
Jesuits. There is often mention of Sprague, Cheney,
Harrington, and Ephrata. The missions of the Jesuits
were spread clockwise around Spokane. Some stations
that formerly had been tended from Coeur d'Alene
Mission, some that had been attached to St. Francis
Regis', and some that had been administered by the
Jesuits from the Nez Perce mission of St. Joseph were
now developed by the Fathers from Spokane. To Addy,
Penrith, and Pullman, Washington; to Wallace and
Burke, Idaho, the Jesuits rode.
This summary of the work which radiated from Spo-
kane is complete enough to show why Gonzaga is called
a second focal point for Jesuit labors in Washington.
Gonzaga was also the center of Jesuit activity for the
whole Northwest. The new building was completed in
1899, and this same year, -in September, the house of
studies for the young Jesuits was transferred from St.
Ignatius* Mission, Montana, to Gonzaga. The sixty-five
Jesuits, pupils, professors, and lay brothers lived in the
original brick building which had been moved from its
first location to a spot behind the new building. Here
the young men who had devoted their lives to the salva-
tion of souls studied philosophy and theology, here many
SPOKANE MISSION AND GONZAGA UNIVERSITY 1 8 1
were ordained priests of God, and here they took up
their priestly duties.
The situation at Gonzaga was not ideal for men sup-
posedly studying. The school was growing rapidly and
needed more help constantly. The scholastics were
studying at Gonzaga and, although they were not sup-
posed to work in the school, necessity had no law. The
school prospered, but the studies of the young Jesuits
^ suffered. The only solution was to take the young men
away so they could pursue their studies without inter-
ruption or distraction.
The new Scholasticate of Mount St. Michael's was be-
gun in March, 1915. The facility and students occupied
the building on January 6, 19 16. 15 An impressive struc-
ture, built in the same district that had seen the first es-
tablished mission in Spokane, it was a symbol that the
Mission of the Mountains had reached maturity. For long
years the Rocky Mountain Mission had depended on
Europe and the eastern United States for men and money.
Here, now, wbs a house of the Mountain Mission for the
training of boys graduated from her own schools. Now,
the Mountain Mission might look with less fear to the
demands made upon her by the mission of Alaska. She
who had been a mission nurtured by the province of
Turin was now in her own right a province nurturing
dependent missions.
CHAPTERED
St. Josepk's Mission (Yaleima) ana
Its Stations
THE THIRD, AND LAST, FOCAL POINT OF JESUIT PENE-
tration and radiation in Washington, was the mission of
St. Joseph among the Yakimas. This mission was origi-
nally founded in October of 1847 by those stalwart
laborers in Christ's vineyard, the oblates of Mary Im-
maculate. Fathers Chirouse, Pandosy, and Ricard had
traveled over the Oregon Trail in that year with His
Excellency, Augustine M. Blanchet, Bishop of Walla
Walla. 1 The oblates began work in the Yakima Valley
in the month preceding the Whitman Massacre. Natural-
ly, after the massacre, there followed a period of unrest
among the tribes, but nothing short of open hostility
could cool the zeal of men of their caliber. They estab-
lished several mission stations in the vicinity of St.
Joseph's- Their zealous labors among these different
camps is sufficiently established by the extant records.
The Indian War of 1855 struck the Yakima mission
with special violence, for the Yakima tribes were the
ringleaders of the rising. Consequently, these terrible
and inveterate haters of the whites had to be crushed if
the war was to end. The United States troops occupied
the valley and billeted at St. Joseph's, which had been
deserted by the oblates who accompanied the retreating
Indians. Before abandoning the mission, Father Pandosy
182
ST. JOSEPH'S MISSION 1 8 3
had buried half a keg of powder to prevent its falling
into the hands of the Indians. The soldiers found this
and concluded that the oblates were aiding and encour-
aging the natives. For this alleged and unproved treach-
ery, the mission was sacked and burned. Bigotry, preju-
dice, and hatred close the first chapter of St. Joseph's
history.
For ten years the Yakima tribe was abandoned except
for a single visit in 1864 by Father Aegidius Junger,
later bishop of Nesqually. The next year Father L. N. St.
Onge was again at work among the tribe. He and his
companion, J. B. Boulet, the future Monsignor J. B.
Boulet, set about rebuilding what had been destroyed by
the whites.
The task was doubly difficult. After the abandonment
of the mission, the Methodists were given the Yakima
Reservation. They were extremely well entrenched in
this mission field, for the Methodist minister, J. H.
Wilbur, was also the Indian agent. The Catholic mis-
sionaries were to experience the pressure of this united
office before many months had passed. A second reason
for difficulty was the rapid influx of the whites. It was
not long before Father L. N. St. Onge realized he could
never accomplish the work by himself. He begged the
Jesuits to accept the mission, but the shortage of men
dictated a prudent refusal.
Bishop Augustine M. Blanchet joined his petition to
that of Father St. Onge:
As regards the Yakimas, Fr. Congiato, when Superior of the Mis-
sions, told me he would accept [the mission]. Now, what will you
do if it is offered? It would be sad if you refused so important a post.
Consider and formulate your future plans that you may have priests
184 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
in case an opening gives us the means of doing much good for these
savages. 2
Father Grassi still had no one to send.
Two years later, the superiors were asking the opinion
of the various Fathers regarding the advisability of ac-
cepting the Yakima mission. 3 Meanwhile, Bishop Augus-
tine M. Blanchet had been in Rome and had carried his
point with the General of the Jesuits, Father Peter Beckx.
The General wrote to Father Giorda:
The Bishop implored me on his knees and I could not refuse him.
Take over the Yakima Mission, even if you have to give up some other
place. 4
In the summer of 1870, Father Cataldo was sent to
visit the Yakima mission. He stayed there three or four
weeks before returning to Coeur d'Alene Mission where
he and Father Joseph Caruana pronounced their final
vows as Jesuits on August 28, 1870. Immediately after
this memorable day, Father Caruana departed to take up
his new duties at St. Joseph's of Ahtanum, the Yakima
mission. 5
Father L. N. St. Onge and Mr. Boulet remained at the
mission until the summer of 1871. They helped Father
Caruana with the language and introduced him to his
new flock. The last baptism recorded by Father St. Onge
was on July 15, 1871. The same day the new church of
St. Joseph's was blessed. Father St. Onge now turned
over his church, house, and congregation to the Jesuits.
Although the mission was comparatively well estab-
lished, it was destined to be a very arduous field of labor.
The chief obstacle was the powerful and comprehensive
opposition of Rev. J. H. Wilbur, minister and Indian
agent of the tribe. Wilbur had come to the district in
ST. JOSEPH'S MISSION 1 8 5
1859 or I860, and from that time until the arrival of
Father St. Onge, had conducted affairs very much as he
desired. With the success of Father St. Onge among the
Indians, the old antipathy between Protestant and
Catholic came to the fore. Wilbur could not bear the
sight of this Catholic success and took measures to stop
it.
He traveled to "Washington in 1870 to present the
whole matter to the Indian Department. Under Grant's
Indian policy, he succeeded in obtaining the allotment
of the Yakimas to the Methodist Church and his own
appointment as Indian agent. That Wilbur was sincere
in all his work for the tribe no one can deny. That his
labors, previous to the advent of the Catholic mission-
aries, had been successful, is a fact commonly admitted.
He had managed to gain high repute in Washington, a
circumstance which made his opposition to the Jesuits all
the more telling.
How clever he was and how difficult to circumvent,
one may gather from the official report of the agent who
temporarily substituted for Wilbur at the time the dis-
pute was growing more bitter:
Furthermore, by comparing the highly-favorable reports made from
this agency in previous years, copies of which are on file in this office
now, regarding the wealth and industry of Yakima Indians on this
reserve, with the result of my inquiries instituted on this subject, the
conclusion forces itself to my mind that these reports were grossly
exaggerated far from the true state of affairs, and must have been
so colored with a view to create certain favorable impressions per-
sonally. 6
The writer then enumerates several examples of this
exaggeration. He concludes:
In one word, these glowing reports have been far from the truth,
but must have been purposely and systematically exaggerated. 7
1 8 6 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Apparently this report affected Wilbur's standing
very little. As he forbade the Jesuits to reside on the
reservation, so he tried to force them to vacate their
mission which was off the reservation. With respect to
the Catholic mission, Wilbur assured the officials in
Washington, "There is more danger of difficulty between
the whites and Indians from this quarter than all others
put together." 8
While Wilbur was moving heaven and earth to have
the Jesuits removed, the intended victims were not idle.
The aged De Smet wrote several touching letters to his
former companion and associate, Hon. E. S. Parker, who
was Indian commissioner. 9 The upshot of this unpleas-
ant incident was a stalemate for both parties. The feeling
ran high and the mission continued to progress.
Father Caruana and his companion, Father Urban
Grassi, strove zealously during those foundation years.
The work at St. Joseph's was less glorious than some of
Father Grasses brilliant missionary expeditions, but the
home mission developed solidly. The missionary at the
central station was engrossed by duties ranging from the
spiritual care of the novice lay brothers (the novitiate for
lay brothers of the Rocky Mountain Mission had been es-
tablished at St. Joseph's in 1874) , the care of whites and
Indians, and supervision of the not-too-productive farm.
These tasks involved a good deal of routine and drudg-
ery with very little encouragement for the home mis-
sionary. Despite the perpetual uphill struggle, the mis-
sion was strengthened and continued to develop.
The agitation against Wilbur was still strong in 1881.
Since his attitude toward the Jesuits had not altered, the
Fathers continued to teach the Indians in private homes.
Moreover, the white settlers in the valley, and especially
ST. JOSEPH'S MISSION 1 87
at Yakima City, near historic Union Gap (a narrow
break in a range of hills through which the Yakima
River flows on its way to the Columbia) needed the
spiritual care of the priests. The horizon of their work
was expanding.
A new school in Yakima City was built on ground do-
nated by a wealthy Catholic of the town. It was form-
ally opened on November 22, 1875, under the direction
of the Sisters of Providence. One of the Jesuits from
the mission acted as chaplain for the Sisters and worked
among the white settlers in and around the town. It
was not until 1884 that another church was erected
about one mile west of Yakima City. Father Caruana
had planned that this should serve the Indians from the
reservation and the whites in Yakima, but this arrange-
ment did not satisfy the whites, who now built their own
church in town.
The Northern Pacific Railroad was to disrupt all the
well-matured plans of the Fathers and Sisters. Whether
it was owing to exorbitant prices asked by the settlers
for land, or because the company considered Yakima
City ill-fitted for a station, is not clear, but the fact re-
mains that the railroad built their depot four miles north
of Yakima City. They offered to move anyone to the
new site free of charge, and in some cases helped the
emigrants financially. Here was the new town of North
Yakima. All that had been accomplished in Yakima
City in the face of growing indifference would have to
be done again in North Yakima, for the Fathers realized
that the city would be where the railroad was.
Father Victor Garrand undertook the transfer of the
mission to North Yakima in September, 1886. The
buildings, not yet three years old, were dismantled,
1 8 8 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
transported to the new site, and there reassembled. The
new location had been given to the Fathers by the city
and by the Northern Pacific; money had been donated
by the people of North Yakima. 10
The following year, the Sisters built a new school in
North Yakima which was opened in September. Until
the school building was finished, they conducted the
classes in the Father's residence. Further expansion in
the educational field was begun in 1887, when a school
for Indian children was planned by the Sisters. A frame
building was put up in the spring of 1888, and this
project operated successfully until 1896, when, with
government support withdrawn, the school was forced
to close.
Then a new church was erected:
... we have been building what might be called a double church, the
one upstairs, for the whites of the neighborhood, and the other, a sort
of half -basement, for the Indians. 11
If the Jesuits could not remain with the Indians,
they did not forget the original object of their mission-
ary lives. While building the church, Father Garrand
had written:
However, I have no fear of a deficiency in funds, when the time for
final settlement arrives. Nevertheless, I have informed my creditors
that I rely upon the good will of the people, and that, in the event of
their insisting upon a prompt payment, they may have to send me
to jail for awhile; in which case, doubtless those who are holding back
their subscriptions will be sure to come forward. 12
Actually, the preoccupation on the part of the people
with their own material progress and a marked negli-
gence toward the material condition of the parish, was
one of the important drawbacks at this time.
ST. JOSEPH'S MISSION 189
The Catholic population continued to increase, until,
by 1900, the original church had been outgrown. The
first Mass in the new church was celebrated on May 21,
1905. This was the climax to the task begun in the fall
of 1903. The year after the church was completed, a
new residence for the Fathers was erected. The school for
boys, Marquette College, was built in 1909 to fill the
pressing need of a Catholic school for the rapidly increas-
ing population. This same year the Sisters of Providence
built a large addition to their academy which served as
the girls 3 school for the parish.
St. Joseph's Mission of Ahtanum had begun in a log
hut built by the oblates in 1847. It had grown and ex-
panded with the country, so that sixty-two years later
it had become a thriving parish, centered around a beau-
tiful stone church, and blessed with vigorous schools for
boys and girls. Through great trials and sacrifices the
course had been run, and at least the first goal had been
attained.
The recent history of St. Joseph's is written in terms
of the spiritual labors of the Jesuits and their apprecia-
tion by the people. What was built, spiritually and tem-
porally, has been carefully husbanded. Today, the tradi-
tion of ninety-eight years goes on.
The chapter on the stations visited from St. Joseph's
Mission is highly interesting. The Yakima mission was
the most westerly of all the Jesuit Rocky Mountain
houses. Owing chiefly to this geographical position, we
will discover that at one time Seattle and Alaska were
attached to Yakima. This gives St. Joseph's the historic
right to the title of "The Largest of All the Rocky
Mountain Missions."
190 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
Prescinding from this quirk of geographical position,
Yakima mission was for many years the center of a
ten-thousand-square-mile missionary field. The bound-
aries of the mission lay north of the Columbia, east of
the Cascades, south of British Columbia, and west of
Spokane. After the departure of the oblates, until well
along in the 1880's, the Jesuits were the only permanent
missionaries in all this vast expanse.
Father Caruana came to St. Joseph's Mission of Ahta-
num in 1870. He was joined in the following year by
Father Grassi, who went about ceaselessly visiting the
tribes. Before 1875, Grassi had contacted the Okinagan
and Wenatchee Indians, the Kootenai and the Klikitat.
These excursions were filled with interesting, although
discouraging, events. The medicine men were a constant
problem for the priests, and this was more than an ordi-
nary obstacle to be surmounted:
The evil one shows himself very frequently to our medicine men
and speaks to them through wild geese and caiotes. Usually he teaches
them a song which they take good care to sing during their incanta-
tions. By the application of the hands I believe that magnetism is
taught them; and that they have worked cures thereby, not only
upon Indian patients but upon white ones also who had been given
up by other doctors, are incontestable facts. 13
Despite these diabolical machinations, the records reveal
steady victories gained by the Fathers.
Father Aloysius Parodi was pastor for the people of
Ellensburg when the first church was built in 1883. 14
Four years later, in the summer of 1887, Ellensburg was
given to His Excellency, Aegidius Junger, Bishop of
Nesqually. The Catholic Indians in Kittitas moved to
ST. JOSEPH'S MISSION 191
the Yakima mission, or joined the Columbia River
tribes. 15
For a time the tribes in Okanogan and along the
Columbia were visited from Yakima as well as from St.
Francis Regis', Colville. The determining factor in these
puzzling shifts of men and missions was usually the
absence or presence of priests. The talents and stamina
of each and every man had to be used to its full capacity.
Other parts of the district were not neglected. To the
south, the Jesuits evangelized the Klikitat tribe, and
labored among all the white settlements along the Lower
Columbia, Mass was celebrated by Father Caruana in
the new church in Centerville on February 10, 1884.
Two years later, Father Garrand wrote concerning near-
by Goldendale:
I left Goldendale yesterday after mass, very sorry of it because
during that fortnight I had no[t] time enough to see all that poor
people left without any help a full year. ... I left several families for
want of time: & if Your Reverence had seen their disappointment
when I started yesterday you would have been very moved. It is a
pity that this poor people is without a priest. 16
Gradually the whole valley was tended by Fathers
from St. Joseph's. A church for the Indians was built on
the reservation at White Swan in August, 1889. Two
years later, a Jesuit was regularly visiting Moxee, Out-
look, Tampico, and Fort Simcoe. 17 The church in Pros-
ser was built by the Jesuits in 1901; in 1908 the Jesuits
were assigned as pastors of Toppenish, where, in the
following year, they built a church. At various times
they were in Belma, Ahtanum, where the mission had
begun, and in Wapato. Two other stations attached to
Yakima merit special mention; the mission in Alaska
and the station of Seattle.
192 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
ALASKA
Alaska was attached to Yakima simply because there
was no established Jesuit house nearer to the proposed
mission in the North. Actually, men or money never
came from St. Joseph's for the Alaskan mission and in
practice the new mission was the special and immediate
care of Father Cataldo, Superior-General of all the
Rocky Mountain Missions.
His Excellency, Charles J. Seghers, Archbishop-Bishop
of Vancouver Island, had dreamed of and planned for a
mission in Alaska since his exploratory journey through
the country in 1 877. The realization of his dream came
in 1886. He had written to Father Cataldo in Septem-
ber, 1885, with the hope of interesting the Jesuits in such
a project:
... I write to you to interest you in the missions o this Territory.
I know your zeal which shrinks before nothing and I remember the
assurance you gave me once to assist me to the extent of your power.
My desire is to locate your Fathers on the Aleutian Islands. I am now
preparing the way to establish permanently a priest here [Juneau]
and another at Sitka. 18
The Archbishop had changed his plan by the time of
his next letter of November, 1885* The headwaters of
the Yukon had not been visited by priest or minister;
therefore, His Excellency considered this a much more
promising field.
My plan would be to take 2 or 3 of your Fathers, with Brothers, with
me next March, put them in charge of that new field and then, leav-
ing them, sail the Youcon down to visit the other parts of Alaska. 19
It is evident that finally, in the spring of 1886, the
ST. JOSEPH'S MISSION 193
earnest pleadings of Archbishop Seghers had received an
encouraging response:
I hasten to reply to your [Father Cataldo's] favor of the 10th inst.
Let me first thank you fervently for your earnestness in the matter;
you are indeed the only one to whom I made application who con-
siders the matter of Alaska missions seriously. 20
The revered prelate was to have Jesuit companions on
his Alaskan adventure. Almost on the eve of his depar-
ture for the scene of his future death and the country of
his life's ambition, which would be watered with his
blood, the Archbishop informed Cataldo, "Humanly
speaking, it is a foolhardy undertaking, something like
my trip in '77; but before God it is the wisdom of the
Cross." 21 These were the words of an apostle about to
begin his "foolhardy undertaking," accompanied by the
Jesuits, Pascal Tosi and Aloysius Robaut, and a com-
panion, Frank Fuller, the future murderer of the Arch-
bishop.
The little party left Victoria in July, 1886; by the end
of the month they were pushing into the interior. They
studied the country carefully as they went along, select-
ing the most promising sites for future missions. In one
of their lonely camps near Nulato, Fuller shot the Arch-
bishop through the heart.
The mission of Alaska, thus baptized in the lif eblood
of its noble founder and bequeathed as an heirloom to the
Society of Jesus, was undertaken amid the mournful
strains of the De Profundis. 22 With their great-souled
friend, companion, and founder lying at their feet
bathed in his own blood, the Fathers resolved that his
life's dream would be fulfilled. There would be mis-
sionaries Jesuit missionaries in Alaska.
194 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
The following year two more recruits arrived. As
many stations and missions were erected as the small
band of Jesuits could tend.
Beyond this point the story of Alaska belongs to a
separate book. It ceased its connection with Yakima
after these first few sorrow-laden months.
SEATTLE
There remains but one other station begun by the
Fathers from St. Joseph's and nurtured by succeeding
Jesuits. The diocesan priests had been in Seattle for
several years before the arrival of the Jesuits, but Seattle
was as yet little more than a town when Father Augus-
tine Laure made his first journey to the coast city in
1890. 23 His Excellency, Aegidius Junger, Bishop of Nes-
qually, had invited the Fathers to open a school and a
church in Seattle. From 1891 to 1895, these were com-
bined in a single building which they leased from Seattle's
pioneer diocesan priest, Father F. X. Pref ontaine.
It was understood from the beginning that such an
arrangement would be temporary. The Jesuits bought
property at Broadway and Madison on February 6, 1891.
The building operations were begun in 1893 after su-
periors had decided to establish a permanent house in
Seattle. Father Garrand had all necessary powers to
proceed with the work when the panic of '93 began.
From January, 1894, until July 12, everything seemed to
be working against him. Then there was a change for
the better. Permission came from the Pope to proceed;
powers were delegated by higher superiors than those in
Seattle; the long-sought money was borrowed in Amster-
dam, Holland. At last, patient months were rewarded,
and building operations were taken up immediately. 24
ST. JOSEPH'S MISSION 195
The workers were Irish and German Catholics; for the most part
they are my own parishioners and have the interest of the church at
heart; besides, the Irish want to convince me that their devotion is
superior to that of the Germans; these latter pretend to be better
than the Irish. They were proud to work directly under the super-
vision of their pastor for I have neither architect nor contractor; they
know we are poor, and that it is for economy that we have neither
architect nor contractor, and they work to the end with an energy
and a spirit that astonish the whole town. On September 8 my
building was under cover; the whole outside was finished. On De-
cember 8th that section set aside temporarily to take the place of a
church, was opened; the happiness of our flock was great. 25
The upper floor of the new building was to serve as
the Church of the Immaculate Conception until 1904.
The lower floors were used for classrooms and for living
rooms for the Jesuits. The year of removal from Spring
Street to the new building on Broadway, the two Jesuit
scholastics were teaching the seventh and eighth grades
and the first and second years of high school. The Holy
Names Sisters were teaching the girls and younger boys
in a frame building which had been built by the former
owners of the property to be used as a day nursery.
The Jesuits* school grew gradually. In 1900 there were
fifty-nine boys in regular attendance. 26 The Fathers had
to overcome strange opposition in some quarters and it
was only by dint of persevering efforts that the enroll-
ment grew. To attract the boys, a gymnasium was built
and later on, handball courts; such things are common-
place enough for us, but were certainly unusual in those
days.
The new Church of the Immaculate Conception was
finished by the beginning of December, 1904. Permission
to build this imposing church had been given in February
of the same year. The Jesuits were anxious to have an
established church which would permit them to dis-
196 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
continue the public chapel in the school building at
Broadway. The limits of the Cathedral Parish, after a
new agreement, had come to include the district where
the school stood. In deference, then, to the desire of His
Excellency, Edward J. O'Dea, Bishop of Nesqually, the
Fathers retired to the new parish of the Immaculate Con-
ception. Schoolrooms now occupied the whole of the
old building.
Fire destroyed the upper story of Seattle College on
May 1, 1907. There were no injuries and no lives lost, in
spite of the fact that classes were in full session at the
time. Neither were they interrupted for any appreciable
period. While the serious damage was being repaired,
classes were convened in the frame building on the school
property and in the basement of St. Joseph's Church,
which had been built the preceding year. The years fol-
lowing the fire were marked by no special event until
1919.
In this year, with the help of a munificent benefactor,
Mr. Thomas C. McHugh, the Jesuits purchased the beau-
tiful Adelphia College on Interlaken Boulevard. The
two fine buildings had belonged to the Swedish people in
the city. To tliat location Seattle College was moved. It
remained on the boulevard until the autumn of 1931,
when a greater Seattle College was reopened at the
property on Broadway. The ten years since this final
removal have been marked by a phenomenal growth
which necessitated the erection, in 1941, of an imposing
new liberal arts building. Definitely, the future of Seattle
College is assured.
The preparatory school remains at the property on the
boulevard. This outlet for Jesuit activity maintains its
position as a select high school. Today, there is no ques-
ST. JOSEPH'S MISSION 197
tion of securing sufficient numbers; rather, it is a matter
of training the best type of student.
Educational work has always been the main task of the
Jesuits in Seattle. However, the people were not neglect-
ed. The Jesuits built the church and school of the Im-
maculate Conception and were pastors of the faithful
until September, 1929, when they turned over this well-
established parish to the Bishop. 27
A church and school for St. Joseph's Parish were
erected by the Jesuits in 1906. Constant growth of the
parish with the passage of years made necessary the en-
largement of their facilities. A new rectory was com-
pleted under direction of the pastor, Father James M.
Brogan, S.J., in August, 1921. Two years later, on
November 13, the Feast of St. Stanislaus Kostka, S.J., the
boys for it was intended just for boys marched into
a new school building whose cornerstone had been laid
the preceding May by the Most Reverend Joseph Raphael
Crimont, S. J., Vicar- Apostolic of Alaska. By the follow-
ing September there were 175 boys in attendance, with
Sisters of the Holy Names as teachers. Today (1943-44)
there are 330 boys and girls enrolled.
To complete the program of expansion the erection of
a new church, to replace the old frame building, was
undertaken by Father William J. Deeney, S J., and his as-
sistants. The edifice, a concrete structure, considered by
many to be one of the finest examples of modern church
architecture in the country, was dedicated on October
26, 1930, by His Excellency Edward J. O'Dea, Bishop of
Seattle.
The Italian parish of Monte Virgine has its Jesuit
pastor; and until it was recently given over to the dio-
198 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
cesan clergy, St. Ignatius' Church, now Our Lady of the
Lake Church, was under Jesuit care.
Outside the city itself, the Fathers at various times
have exercised their ministry in Renton, Bremerton, and
Mercer Island; and for the last fifteen years, the Indians
of Suquamish have been faithfully tended by them. For
a number of years, too, a parish on Bainbridge Island has
been attended by a Jesuit Father. Occasionally, when
their help has been requested, the Fathers have assisted in
the various parishes in Bellingham.
TACOMA
The Jesuits were invited to assume charge of St. Leo's
Parish, Tacoma, in the spring of 191 1. The formal agree-
ment by which the Jesuits were given this parish, and by
which they agreed to care for the Italian people in both
Seattle and Tacoma, was signed in December of that
year. 28 A few years after the Fathers had taken over the
care of St. Leo's, a very commodious school was built.
This was the only Catholic boys' high school in the city.
In December of 1927, the construction of Bellarmine
High School was begun. This new institution, which
opened in 1928, was to serve as an all-city Catholic boys'
high school, while the building at St. Leo's housed the
girls' Catholic high school.
Soon after they had settled in Tacoma, the Fathers
began their regular missionary excursions. We find them
at different times in Gig Harbor, Eatonville, Mineral,
and Kapowsin. The prisoners in the Federal Penitentiary
on McNeil Island have Jesuit chaplains, as do the resi-
dents of the Ozanam Home for the aged. And to the
Indian children in the Cushman Indian School, the
Fathers were no less devoted.
ST. JOSEPH'S MISSION 199
PORT TCTWNSEND
The last Jesuit house established on the coast, of which
mention has not yet been made, was Manresa Hall in
Port Townsend. This beautif ul spot serves as the tertian-
ship, or the house for the third year of the Jesuits' asceti-
cal training. On September 8, 1927, the tertianship was
inaugurated. By this simple occurrence, the Rocky
Mountain Mission had almost reached its full stature.
There were now within the province a scholasticate,
where the young Jesuit pursues his higher studies in
philosophy; and a tertianship for those who have finished
their course and are to reanimate themselves before be-
ginning their work for souls. The mission, which had
begun under so many difficulties and doubts a century
ago, had, with God's blessing, come far and done much.
CHAPTER X
Oregon Jesuits in W-gomiriJ anc
Soutn Dakota
ST. STEPHEN'S MISSION, WYOMING
THE MISSION AMONG THE ARAPAHOES WAS FIRST OF-
fered to the Rocky Mountain Jesuits in 1885 by His
Excellency, James O'Connor, Bishop of Omaha. 1 Father
Joseph Cataldo, Superior-General of the Rocky Moun-
tain Mission, was forced to decline because of the lack
of men. Hence, it was the Missouri Jesuit, Paul Mary
Ponziglione, who began to work at St. Stephen's Mission
among the northern Arapahoes in July, 1886.
This mission had previously been under the care of the
Jesuits of the Buffalo Mission who, through some mis-
understanding had abandoned it while Bishop O'Connor
was absent from his diocese. On his return, His Excel-
lency had begged the Jesuits of the Missouri province to
assume temporary charge until permanent missionaries
could be found. This the Missouri Jesuits did out of
gratitude for the many kindnesses Bishop O'Connor had
manifested toward them. 2 But the Missouri Jesuits never
intended to keep the mission, partly because they needed
their men elsewhere, and partly because St. Stephen's was
too far from their other establishments.
The provincial superior of Missouri naturally turned
to the Rocky Mountain Jesuits as possible laborers in a
field which was not far removed from their Cheyenne
200
JESUITS IN WYOMING AND SOUTH DAKOTA 201
mission, St. Labre's. Father Cataldo pleaded dearth of
men, but to no avail. The Missouri provincial offered
him two or three young men if he would assume respon-
sibility for the mission in Wyoming. These negotiations
lagged, with nothing definite being decided on either side.
A new phase in the negotiations was opened when, on
April 21, 1891, Mother Katharine Drexel wrote to
Father Leopold van Gorp:
And now Revd. Father, I have a request to make [o] You, which
I beg you to consider before our Lord. Cannot the Rocky Mt. Jesuits
take St. Stephen's Mission on July 1st? 3
A short time later, as a postscript to a letter which
enclosed $12,000 for the Mountain Missions, Mother
Drexel wrote, "Please don't forget St. Stephen's Mis-
sion." 4 Mother Drexel had chosen a rather powerful
means to influence Father van Gorp. It is not surprising
to read in Mother DrexePs next letter:
The telegram you so kindly sent saying that the prospects for taking
St. Stephen's were favorable was like a gleam of hope at a very dark
hour. 5
Father van Gorp accepted the "Wyoming mission because
of his indebtedness for the countless favors given the
Mountain Missions by Mother Drexel. The Wyoming
mission was transferred on August 24, 1891, to the care
of the Rocky Mountain Jesuits. Four days later, Father
Aloysius Folchi arrived at St. Stephen's to take charge.
The interim during which the status of the mission
had been left in doubt were years of decline for the
institution. Much work awaited the new superiors.
Moreover, Mother Drexel was very anxious to have the
mission brought back to its original condition lest any
202 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
serious trouble should arise with the government, which
might result in a cessation of Federal aid.
A new school building was erected in 1892 for the
boys. Furthermore, money was promised by Mother
Drexel to be used for a new church. Father Balthassar
Feusi became superior of St. Stephen's in 1894 and re-
mained at this post until 1901. It is owing to his labors
that the mission was greatly improved and the school
brought to a flourishing condition.
To appreciate his accomplishments one must realize
that:
The Arapahoes' heavy intelligence, narrow ideas and native super-
stitions make them altogether indifferent. We hope that after this
protracted sleepy state, they will awaken to new life and vigor. A
few years ago some of them were baptized, but the grace of the Lord
fell on barren ground and therefore it still lies dormant.
Our children, who are 55 in number and (except a few half-
breeds) Indians to the back bone, are as wild as little coyotes. They
inherit from their parents indifference in matters of religion. The
only thing which makes them happy is to get a cigarette and clamber
up the hills, ramble around and kill with their bows rabbits, birds and
coyotes. But if they will escape home to their tepees, this is the
climax of all happiness. 6
Such characteristics would hardly attract one searching
for an easy mission.
Nevertheless, the spiritual work accomplished was
considerable. One hundred and thirty were confirmed
before 1913; from 1904 to 1924 the number of baptized
Indians living at the mission increased from 360 to 973.
There would have been many more conversions if it had
not been that the language was so difficult for the mis-
sionaries to learn, that the mission had to live down the
slanderous talk of Protestant ministers, and that those
JESUITS IN WYOMING AND SOUTH DAKOTA 203
in charge had to struggle desperately to find provisions
and clothing for the Indian pupils.
Father John B. Sifton was appointed superior in
190 J. He was the first missionary to master the language
well enough to use it fluently. As a consequence, he was
instrumental in many conversions.
Until 1911, when the government again began to
help the mission financially. Mother Drexel bore a great
part of the burden. With this help, Father Sifton built a
laundry building during his term of office. This was of
inestimable value to the heavily burdened Sisters of St.
Francis.
Meanwhile, the Missouri province of the Society of
Jesus had absorbed part of the Buffalo Mission from
which they had taken over many priests. Since Father
General thought St. Stephen's might be more easily
managed by the Missouri province than by the newly-
formed California province, Father P. F. Sialm replaced
Father J. B. Sifton on August 22, 1912. The mission,
undertaken as an act of gratitude, was relinquished.
ST. FRANCIS' MISSION, SOUTH DAKOTA
On September 1, 1907, Father Francis Xavier Wernz,
General of the Society of Jesus, decreed the separation
of St. Francis* Mission and Holy Rosary Mission, South
Dakota, from the Buffalo Mission and their attachment
to the Rocky Mountain Mission.
St. Francis 3 Mission, Rosebud, South Dakota, had been
taken over by the Jesuits of the Buffalo Mission on Janu-
ary 1, 1886. Before the mission could progress easily,
Protestant opposition had to be overcome. By 1897
there was an average of over two hundred pupils in the
204 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
school. Later, from 1900 to 1904, when no money was
given for the support of the school by the government,
an average of 232 pupils were supported chiefly by the
munificence of Mother Drexel. Two years after St.
Francis 3 had fallen to the care of the Mountain Mission,
there were 318 pupils. By this time the school was also
receiving financial aid from the tribal funds of the Sioux.
To accommodate this increase in number, a new
stone school building was erected in 1908-9. The Fathers
concentrated their work on the young Indians in the
school. Success blessed their introduction of a temper-
ance union among the mission Indians and those living
near by, for the Sioux had not been immune from the
devastating effects of white men's whiskey. Sodalities
for the boys and girls were organized in the school.
The labor bore fruit. From 1908 to 1910 there were
203 baptisms, 6,138 confessions, and twenty-one mar-
riages performed and blessed. The other years surpassed
these representative figures, for the Fathers became more
and more endeared to the Indians.
This mission had cost much but it had repaid well.
The few years that it was in care of the Rocky Moun-
tain Jesuits had been very fruitful and consoling. In
1912, the Mountain Jesuits were ordered to relinquish
St. Francis' Mission and to concentrate their men and
labors in the Pacific Northwest which was then develop-
ing rapidly.
HOLY ROSARY MISSION, SOUTH DAKOTA
Holy Rosary Mission, Pine Ridge, South Dakota, was
turned over to the Rocky Mountain Jesuits at the time
they received St. Francis'. Holy Rosary Mission had been
founded for the Oglala Sioux by Father Martin Marty,
JESUITS IN WYOMING AND SOUTH DAKOTA 205
O.S.B., in 1887. The Jesuits of the Buffalo Mission had
taken charge in 1888 when the $40,000 establishment
was completed. The money, again, was furnished by
Mother Katherine Drexel, of Philadelphia.
From the beginning, Holy Rosary Mission had a
goodly number of pupils. One reason for this immediate
success was the patronage of the school by the great
Sioux chief, Red Cloud. Although it is true that the
Sioux children were no more attracted by the confines
of a schoolroom than the other Indians whom we have
seen, yet with the help of Red Cloud and the other chiefs,
there were 250 pupils by 1905, 7 The method followed
was that which we have seen time and again in our
narrative. Here, as usual, it succeeded.
Schoolwork occupied most of the priests* time in the
early years of the mission. The adults, however, were
not entirely neglected, for the Fathers traveled among
the camps as much as possible. With Mother Drexel's
help, chapels for the Indians were built or repaired in
Rushville, Gordon, Hay Springs, and Mirage Flats. 8 The
results were encouraging for there were 26 5 baptisms, 33
marriages blessed, and 310 children given instructions in
the one year of 1908-9. 9 This flourishing mission reverted
to the Missouri Jesuits in June, 1912, at the same time as
St. Stephen's, Wyoming, and St. Francis 3 , South Dakota,
were returned to their previous pastors.
Besides receiving the ministrations of the Jesuits living
at Holy Rosary Mission, this section was occasionally
visited by Jesuits from the more westerly stations. The
ubiquitous Peter Prando was with the Dakota and
Wyoming tribes in 1903. Cody, Lander, Wind River,
Riverton, Meeteetse, and Washakie are some of the
places mentioned in his records.
206 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
At the time of the Wyoming and Dakota ventures,
the original Rocky Mountain Mission, then but lately
become part of the California province, covered the
widest area in its history. Oregon, Washington, Cali-
fornia, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South
Dakota and Alaska were under the one superior, Very
Reverend Father Herman Goller. From the Dakota
Bad Lands to the frozen glaciers of Alaska, the Jesuits
of Oregon were laboring for Christ and His Kingdom.
4
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CHAPTER XI
Among tne Indians ana Wnites in
Oregon
ST. ANDREW'S MISSION AMONG THE UMATELLAS
THE JESUITS HAD WITHDRAWN FROM OREGON CITY IN
1853, and more than twenty years were to pass before
any member of the Order returned to Oregon for mis-
sionary work. Doubtless they passed through the coun-
try while en route to the Lower Columbia, but there is
no record of any spiritual ministrations until Father
Cataldo's sermons to the Umatilla tribe in the fateful
year of 1877, the year of Chief Joseph's Nez Perce War.
The Jesuits were preceded on this mission by a long
line of heroic priests. The oblates, Fathers Pandosy and
Chirouse, who had worked among this tribe in 1847;
Father John Baptist Brouillet, Vicar-General of the dio-
cese of Walla Walla, who was there at the time of the
Whitman Massacre; Father Toussaint Mesplie, who was
later to do outstanding work among the tribes of south-
ern Idaho; and Father Bertram Orth, future bishop of
Victoria, were some of the great men who began their
missionary careers in this region. Father Louis Conrardy
came to the mission in February, 1875, and, with the
exception of the year 1885, remained until March, 1888.
He left the Umatilla mission to complete the immolation
of his life among the lepers at Molokai. While he was in
Umatilla, the Jesuits, Cataldo and Morvillo, came often
207
208 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
from St. Joseph's Mission to help this zealous diocesan
priest. Fathers Conrardy, Cataldo, Morvillo, and His
Excellency, Archbishop Charles Seghers, gave an ex-
tended course of sermons and instructions to all the
Indians in 1882: "All the Catholic Indians of the Reser-
vation attended, to the number of some six hundred and
also many of the yet pagan Indians/* 1
Father Conrardy built a little school in 1882-83,
which was conducted by the Sisters of Mercy under the
supervision of a government superintendent. It was
one of those rare combinations, a Catholic government
school. As time went on, the government officials began
to interfere more and more until, finally, in 1888 the
Sisters of Mercy withdrew and Father Conrardy set out
for the leper colony in Molokai.
Father Urban Grassi arrived on July 8, 1888 to assume
temporary charge of the mission. This action had been
taken only after repeated requests from His Excellency,
William Gross, Archbishop of Oregon City. Father
Grassi had the difficult task of re-establishing and re-
building a mission that had declined because of endless
interference from without and, occasionally, poor ad-
ministration from within.
Father Grassi first moved the fine church, which had
been built by Father Conrardy, to a more convenient
location about a quarter of a mile to the east. Here he
began to work in earnest. The next year, with the
financial help of Mother Drexel, a new school was con-
structed. Under the direction of the Sisters of St.
Francis' from Philadelphia, the finished building was
opened on February 25, 1890, with thirteen pupils in
attendance. Fifteen years later, there were eighty-three
pupils. Father Grassi was not destined to see the remark-
AMONG THE INDIANS AND WHITES IN OREGON 209
able fruits of his strenuous two years on the mission. On
March 21, 1890, not quite a month after the opening of
the school, this pious and indefatigable laborer, leaving
his earthly cares to be guarded by his brother Jesuits,
went to receive the reward of his fidelity.
The school flourished. The rapidly increasing enroll-
ment necessitated another building for the pupils. With
the help of Mother Katherine Drexel, the new addition
was completed in February, 1892. The Oregon legisla-
ture appropriated $6,000 annually for the school, begin-
ning in 1893. The next year, by December 2 J, a recrea-
tion center and assembly hall was ready for use.
The future of the school seemed uncommonly bright
by 1895. Then, in that year, government aid to Indian
contract schools was radically restricted or completely
withdrawn, and St. Andrew's did not escape the general
hardship brought on by this bigoted policy. However,
it is no less true that the marked decline was much later
in coming to St. Andrew's than to some of the other
contract schools. Perhaps this was due to the state sub-
sidy and the continued support of Mother Drexel, Arch-
bishop Gross, and other kind benefactors. There were
still ninety-five pupils in the school in 1911. Fire de-
stroyed the girls' school and hall in 1926. The Fathers
wanted to rebuild, but the struggle for money to carry
on had become well-nigh desperate by that time. The
school was continued in this much-curtailed condition
until its final closing in 1943.
The work carried on from St. Andrew's covered most
of northeastern Oregon. As though the labor of operat-
ing this difficult mission was not sufficient to occupy
them, we find the missionaries bringing the gospel to
those not fortunate enough to have a pastor of their own.
210 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
The Jesuits worked in Ukiah, Freewater, Butter Creek,
Umatilla, and Echo. The church in Athena and the
church in Adams were built under the supervision of the
missionaries. Hermiston, Reith, and Gibbon were sta-
tions supplied from St. Andrew's. 2 His Excellency,
Archbishop Gross, appealed to the Jesuit Fathers at St.
Andrew's Mission to take charge' of the parish in
Pendleton:
Please inform your V[ery] R[everend] Fr. General of all these
matters, and insist with him especially on the extreme need of those
poor souls that are now being lost, and have a claim to your charity
at least as great as any poor Indians. Also assure Father General, that
by accepting Pendleton, not only he will confer a great favor on me,
but also will do a great act of charity to this Archdiocese, which
charity God will bless in all his other works of zeal A. M. D. G. 3
In answer to this strong letter, the Jesuits assumed the
charge of St. Mary's Parish in Pendleton. This was to
be the largest station begun by the missionaries at the
mission. While today most of the other churches pio-
neered by the Jesuits have been relinquished to the
Bishop, they still work among the flock that, so trouble-
some in the beginning, has now grown so consoling.
For the most part, the remaining history of the Jesuits
in Oregon is a tale of the occupation of temporary
stations at the request of the Bishop. Consequently, the
work was spread over a large part of the state. Here the
Jesuits administered a parish until a regular diocesan
pastor was available; there they worked among the long-
forgotten Indians; sometimes the Fathers gave missions,
at other times they were sent as helpers to some over-
burdened pastor. The narrative of these labors is uneven
and broken, but the theme is constant throughout the
AMONG THE INDIANS AND WHITES IN OREGON 21 1
Jesuits helped as much as they were able where help was
needed most.
KLAMATH FALLS
His Excellency, Charles J. O'Reilly, Bishop of Baker
City, asked the Jesuits to take charge of Klamath Falls
and the surrounding country on February 2, 1905. 4 The
request was filled by the arrival of the Jesuits on June 30
of that year. Here the Fathers labored with great f ruit
until April 10, 19 16. 5 These years were filled with the
problems, successes, and disappointments attendant on
any good vigorous parish. Church improvements, parish
socials, sermons, converts, confirmation classes, and First
Communion instructions are all noted in the diaries of
the time. There were days of consolation occasioned by
the return of a member of the flock long strayed; there
were cloudier days when difficulties arose or the conduct
of one of the congregation saddened the heart of the
pastor. For all that, it was only tinder obedience that the
Jesuits laid down their charge in Klamath Falls. These
years were abundantly blessed and usually consoling.
One of the most satisfying aspects of the work at
Klamath Falls was the good accomplished in the near-by
towns. Merrill and Holy Cross were visited regularly,
while a priest resided in Lakeview where a permanent
parish had developed. The Catholics in Silver Lake and
Plush were cared for from Lakeview or Klamath Falls.
These outlying stations were the occasion of some thrill-
ing experiences when the visiting priests began to travel
in automobiles. Neither the roads nor the Fathers were
really prepared for such a radical innovation. One might
honestly question the wisdom of the benefactor who
presented the "Padres on Horseback" with their first
212 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
horseless carriage. No deaths are on record for these
adventurous days, though bruises, severe jostling, and
harrowing escapes are frequently noted.
Two years after the Jesuits accepted the parish in
Klamath Falls, His Excellency, Alexander Christie,
Archbishop of Oregon City, asked the Fathers to assume
the care of Beaverton, Corvallis, and Ashland. In the
preceding year, 1906, His Excellency had requested the
Jesuits to take charge of the Indians on Siletz Reserva-
tion. To each of these requests the Fathers responded
with all the resources at their command.
The mission among the Siletz Indians was particularly
disheartening. Four years of labor were summarized by
Father Dimier:
I went from house to house teaching children and the grown-ups
the elements of Xtian doctrine. I did a good deal of that work in
some families in hope of drawing them to the church whither they
very very seldom come; but no results followed. So I give them up
if Providence does not interpose miraculously in their favor. 6
Fortunately the missionaries had some other work among
the whites in Newport, Corvallis, and Monroe which
was not quite so discouraging.
PORTLAND
The Jesuit parish of St. Ignatius' in Portland was of-
fered by Archbishop Christie in 1907, but construction
did not begin until 1908. This latter year, Archbishop
Christie offered the Italian parish in Portland to the
Jesuits. Again in 1929, the Archbishop found himself
urgently in need of a priest to conduct the services in
the traveling chapel car. The Jesuits were called on to
supply the need.
AMONG THE INDIANS AND WHITES IN OREGON 213
NOVITIATE OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER
The most recent Jesuit foundation in Oregon was the
new novitiate near Sheridan, Oregon, located fifty-two
miles southwest of Portland. The California province
of the Jesuits had been separated into two administrative
divisions on November 6, 1930. This action was prepara-
tory to the establishment of two new provinces, that
of Oregon and that of California.
The future need of a house of training for candidates
of the Oregon province was partially filled when prop-
erty for the new house was purchased the same month
of the preliminary division of the province. The tempo-
rary frame building which served at first as the novitiate
was blessed on July 31, 1931. The first part of the
permanent novitiate of St. Francis Xavier was begun
April 13, 1932, and the new building was occupied in
the last week of June, 1933. In the same district where
De Smet had founded the original ill-fated St. Francis
Xavier 's in 1844 to serve as a mother house for all the
Rocky Mountain Mission now stands the novitiate of St.
Francis Xavier, the house of training for the young
Jesuits of the Oregon province.
These few notes indicate the type of work which
has been done by the Fathers in Oregon. It has been
patterned on that style of life which answers to the
words, "Come and he cometh; go and he goeth." That
the Jesuits assisted in the advancement of the Church in
Oregon consoles them; that their work has been of
an unheralded and humble character, that their labors
have been expended, for the most part, in helping a
zealous diocesan clergy makes their joy no less.
CHAPTER XII
Concl
usion
VARIED, INDEED, HAS BEEN THE STORY OF THE JESUITS
in Old Oregon during their first century of existence.
Originally, the Mission of the Mountains was founded,
staffed, and supported by the Jesuits of the vice-province
of Missouri. In those days the great organizer, De Smet,
and the tireless missionaries, Joset, Mengarini, Nobili, and
Ravalli spent their lives for their Indian neophytes.
Shortly after Joset's appointment as superior of all
the missions in the Oregon Country, the new field of
labor was placed under the immediate supervision of the
Father General in Rome. Thenceforward, all Jesuits in
Europe might be called upon to support this far-distant
vineyard.
However, in a very few years, stability, progress, and
solid development dictated that the far western coun-
try be assigned to a definite group of Jesuits who would
be responsible for the successful expansion of the work
already accomplished. Thus it happened that the Italian
province of Turin was charged with the care of the
mission of California and of California's parent, the
Rocky Mountain Mission. Through long years and hard
years the Italian Jesuits supplied as best they could, men
and money to carry on spiritual work from Alaska to
Mexico, and from the Pacific Ocean to the lands beyond
the Rockies.
The territory was vast and the demands almost with-
214
CONCLUSION 215
out end. But, by 1907 sufficient progress had been made
to warrant the reuniting of the Mission of the Mountains
with her offspring, the mission of California, into the
newly constituted province of California. No longer
dependent on European resources, the Jesuits of the West
looked to their own United States for any needed assist-
ance. The new province struck deep roots in its native
soil and the work increased and spread the length and
breadth of the West. Schools, colleges, and parishes in-
creased in number; the Indian missions were retained and
new institutions for the natives were established. As the
West grew and wider vistas opened, the Jesuits kept in
step with the constant development. New towns, larger
cities, shifting populations, changing interests, all neces-
sitated new policies, new allocations of men, new ex-
penditures of money, if the most good was to be ac-
complished with the little means in hand. In large part,
the decisions through the years were wise.
Finally, by February, 1932, the time had come to
separate the two sections. Efficiency of government, di-
versity of work, and local needs and projects demanded
a division into two provinces Oregon and California.
The former Rocky Mountain Mission became the
province of Oregon, and the former mission of Cali-
fornia became a newly delimited province of California.
The age of maturity was attained!
A century has passed since De Smet's memorable
journey, a century filled with the labors of men
. . . who devoted themselves entirely to the salvation o souls, yet in
such a way that their zeal seemed to be nothing else than a flame
bursting forth from the fulness of a heart, most closely united with
God. 7
2 1 6 THE JESUITS IN OLD OREGON
A century of trials and of failures, of triumphs and of
hopes; a century of labor among Indians and whites, in
hovels and in homes, in prisons and in camps, in schools
and in hospitals; a century of confessing Christ before
men that He might confess them before His Father in
Heaven this has been the response to the pleadings of
a few Flathead Indians by the Jesuits in Old Oregon.
As their second century begins, they find themselves
surrounded by a world at war. Men bred in the tradi-
tion begun by the versatile stalwarts, De Smet, Giorda,
Joset, De la Motte, and others, have not failed their God
and their country in these critical times. Not a few have
donned the uniform of their homeland and gone off to
the wars to bring spiritual strength to the fighting men.
The Jesuits left behind have not hesitated to place their
experience and their schools at the disposal of the armed
forces that the day of blessed peace may be hastened.
With peace will come other problems new problems
for the West. Against this day the Jesuits are preparing.
To instill correct attitudes toward new concepts of labor,
of industry, and of unemployment; to staff schools and
colleges for the Christian education of generations at
peace; to tend the Indian missions of the West and the
missions of Alaska; to work among the people in parishes,
in hospitals, and in prisons f or all these tasks there will
be men ready and prepared. One full century of progress
and accomplishment is not the end; it is but the
beginning.
Biographical Appendix
BARCELO, PETER: Father Peter Barcelo was born of Mexican par-
entage at the village of Montezuma in Sonora, Mexico, on August 1,
1838. He studied the classics and some philosophy with great success
at the seminary in the city of St. Michael of Culiacan. On September
9, 1861, he entered the Society of Jesus at Santa Clara, California.
After his novitiate, he reviewed his previous studies and then was sent
to "Woodstock, Maryland, to complete his preparation for the priest-
hood. He was ordained priest on June 29, 1872, by the Right Rever-
end James Gibbons (afterwards Cardinal and Archbishop of Balti-
more) , titular bishop of Adramyttum and Vicar Apostolic of North
Carolina. In 1880 he was sent to Helena, Montana. From 1880 to
1885 he visited the Crow Indians from Helena. From 1885 to 1887
he was among the Cheyenne Indians at St. Labre's, Montana. In 1887
ill health, caused by hardships and self-imposed mortifications, in-
duced his superiors to transfer him to Gonzaga College, Spokane,
Washington, where he died November 1, 1888.
BOUGIS, PETER CLOVIS: At Les Sables d'Olonne in the Ardennes
Mountains of France, on March 31, I860, was born Peter Clovis
Bougis. He entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Angers,
France, August 28, 1879, but before the end of the two years' pro-
bation he, with the other members of the Society, was expelled from
the country by the anticlerical laws of March 29, 1880. Wherefore,
he pronounced his first vows at Aberdovey in Wales. From 1881 to
1884 he studied philosophy at Woodstock College, Maryland. For a
year he was professor of French at Holy Cross College, Worcester,
Massachusetts. During the three years following, he studied the
Indian languages at St. Peter's Mission, Montana. Theology, he studied
at Woodstock, the Isle of Jersey, and Chieri, Italy. He was ordained
priest at Tassano, Italy, September 8, 1890. From 1891 to 1895 he
was at Holy Family Mission, Montana. The year of "third proba-
tion" (1905-6) was followed by twelve years of labor in the towns
217
218 BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
of southern Alaska. From 1908 to 1911 he was a confessor in the
College Church of St. Ignatius, San Francisco, California. After
spending the next three years in Montana, he returned once more to
St. Ignatius' College, San Francisco, where he remained until a few
months before his death. His end being hastened by arterial sclerosis
and other complications, Father Bougis died at the Sacred Heart
Novitiate, Los Gatos, California, on March 27, 1920.
CANESTRELLI, PHILIP: Father Philip Canestrelli, an Italian, was
born March 19, 1839. He entered the Society of Jesus on September
28, 1854. A professor at the Gregorian University at the time of
Father Rappagliosi's death, he was inspired to follow the missionary's
example and, upon volunteering, was accepted. He arrived at the
missions in 1878. Two years at Fort Colville were followed by seven
years at St. Francis Regis' Mission, Washington. From 1887 to 1893
he was at St. Ignatius* Mission, Montana. The year 1893-94 was spent
at Santa Clara University, California. He was recalled to Rome in
1 894. The language used in his Kalispel translation of the Baltimore
Catechism is said, by a very competent authority, to be perfect.
CARUANA, JOSEPH: Father Joseph Caruana was born on August
28, 1836, at Valetta on the Island of Malta. He studied for the
priesthood at the College of the Society of Jesus on the Island and at
the Roman College. On June 18, 1859, he was ordained priest, by a
dispensation, at the early age of twenty-two and a half years. Almost
immediately after his entrance into the novitiate on July 15, 1860, he
volunteered for the Indian missions of the Rocky Mountains. Before
the expiration of his novitiate, he was sent to Santa Clara, Cali-
fornia, whete he pronounced his vows in 1862. Then he set out
for the Coeur d'Alene mission. The year 1862-63 he spent at St.
Ignatius' Mission, Montana. From 1863 to 1870 he was at Desmet,
Idaho. From 1870 to 1880 he was at North Yakima; from 1880 to
1883 at Colville; from 1883 to 1885 at North Yakima; from 1885
to 1890 at Desmet; 1890-91 at Umatilla; 1891 to 1893 at Gonzaga
College, Spokane, Washington; from 1893 to 1896 at Colville; and,
from 1896 until his death caused by a stroke of apoplexy on
October 29, 1913, at Desmet, Idaho. Father Caruana, the first Jesuit
superior at the Yakima mission, founded in 1873 and became the
first novice-master of the first novitiate of the Rocky Mountains.
CATALDO, JOSEPH M.: Father Joseph M. Cataldo was born on
March 17, 1837, at Terrasini, near Palermo, Sicily. After preliminary
BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 219
studies at Terrasini and Castellamare del Golfo, he entered the novi-
tiate of the Society of Jesus at Palermo, December 22, 18 52. In the
second year of his novitiate young Cataldo was declared by the doc-
tors to be consumptive and was sent home, but after six months he
returned to the novitiate. When Garibaldi drove the Jesuits from
Sicily in I860, Father Cataldo was sent to Louvain to study theology.
He was ordained priest at Louvain on September 8, 1862, by the
Bishop of Liege, Mgr. D'Argenteau, a former officer in the army of
Napoleon I. Having completed his study of theology at Boston,
Massachusetts, and at Santa Clara, California, he arrived at the
Coeur d'Alene mission in October, 1865". In November, 1866, he
founded St. Michael's Mission on Peone Prairie near Spokane Falls,
Washington. In 1867 he began the mission among the Nez Perces
near Lapwai, and 1876 marked the beginning of his foundation of St.
Joseph's Mission among the Nez Perces near Culdesac, Idaho. From
1877 to 1893 he was superior-general of the Rocky Mountain Mis-
sions. Until 1883 he resided at Lewiston. From that year until 1886
he was at St. Michael's Mission. In the latter year he made the newly
founded Gonzaga College, Spokane, his headquarters. Upon the
earnest entreaty of Archbishop Seghers and Bishop Brondel, Father
Cataldo went to Europe in 1884 in quest of laborers for the mission.
From 1901 to 1903 he was in Alaska. In 1915 he was transferred to
St. Joseph's, Culdesac. He died at Pendleton, Oregon, April 9, 1928,
at the close of a mission for the Nez Perce and Umatilla Indians.
CONGIATO, NICHOLAS: Father Nicholas Congiato was born at
Ploaghe in northern Sardinia on September 14, 1816. He entered the
Society at Cagliari on May 15, 1835. This young man, in whom
superiors saw an ardent love of virtue and rare administrative ability,
was driven from Italy by the revolution of 1848. Coming to
America, he completed his course of theology, begun in Italy, at the
Jesuit College of Bardstown, Kentucky. In 1854, Father General
Peter Beckx appointed him superior of the California and Rocky
Mountain missions. He held this office until 1858, when he became
superior of the Rocky Mountain Mission alone for a three-year term.
After forty-six years spent in governing the missions and individual
colleges and houses, he passed to his reward at the Sacred Heart
Novitiate at Los Gatos, California, a house which he had founded, on
May 10, 1897.
DIOMEDI, ALEXANDER: Born at Bevagna in Umbria, Italy, May
10, 1843, Father Alexander Diomedi had received a good education
220 BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
before his entrance into the Jesuit Novitiate at Rome, November 20,
1861. He pronounced his first vows in 1863. During the following
year he was engaged in reviewing his studies in the classics at the
Roman College, where he remained for three more years studying
philosophy. From 1867 to 1869 he tutored the less brilliant students
at the Roman College and at Tivoli. He began his study of theology
in 1869, but it was interrupted the next year by the troubles conse-
quent upon the unification of Italy. He was then sent to St. Bueno's
in Wales, where, after being ordained on January 1, 1872, he com-
pleted his course of theology in 1873. Upon his arrival in New York,
1874, he was sent to Woodstock, Maryland, to learn the printer's
trade that he might print the Indian language dictionaries and gram-
mars. Father Diomedi moved the Coeur d'Alene mission from
Cataldo, Idaho, to Desmet, Idaho, in 1879. He built St. Francis
Xavier's church in Missoula in 1892 and completed St. Joseph's,
Yakima, in 1903. He died at Manresa Hall, Port Townsend, Wash-
ington, on December 31, 1932.
EBERSCHWEILER, FREDERICK: Father Frederick Eberschweiler was
born on June 19, 1839, in Wasenweiler along the Rhine River in
Germany. He attended the Jesuit College at Treves, Germany. He
entered the Society's novitiate at Miinster, Westphalia, on September
30, 1858. After twelve years of study, three years of which were
spent in France, he was ordained priest on July 1, 1870, at Maria-
Laach in the Rhineland, a scholasticate of the Society of Jesus, and
once a Benedictine Monastery founded in 1093. Father Eberschweiler
served as a chaplain in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. When
Bismarck expelled the Jesuits from Germany in 1872, Father Eber-
schweiler was sent to Buffalo, New York. Ten years later he arrived
at Fort Benton, Montana. In 1885 he was sent to Fort Assiniboin,
Montana. In 1887 he was detailed to found St. Paul's Mission in the
Little Rockies. He was at Fort Belknap Agency in 1892, whence he
visited Havre. Father Eberschweiler built a church in the latter
place in 1900 and became its first pastor in 1903. He remained
there until his death on July 13, 1918.
FEUSI, BALTHASSAR: This pioneer missionary of the Gros Ventres
and Assiniboin Indians was born at Schwyz, Switzerland, on March
19, 1854. On September 29, 1873, he entered the novitiate of the
Society of Jesus at Exaeten, Holland. He came to America in the
early eighties and made his theological studies at Woodstock, Mary-
BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 221
land. His Excellency, Aegidius Junger, Bishop of Nesqually, or-
dained him in St. Aloysius church, Spokane, Washington, on Decem-
ber 3, 1886. Upon the completion of two more years of theology
he made his year of "third probation" under Father Joset at Desmet
Mission during the year 18188-89. During the latter year he was sent
to St. Paul's Mission, Montana, where he was superior from 1891 to
1894. This year he went to St. Stephen's Mission, Wyoming, remain-
ing there until 1901, when he went to North Yakima. From 1903
to 1905 he was back at St. Stephen's again. He was administrator of
the parish at Klamath Falls, Oregon, from 1905 to 1907. Father
Feusi was at St. Francis Regis' Mission, Washington, from 1907 to
1917; at St. Paul's Mission, Montana, from 1917 to 1925; and at St.
Ignatius' Mission, Montana, from 1925 to 1928. This latter year he
was given pastoral work at Yakima, Washington, caring, at the same
time, for the Indians at White Swan. In 1930 he returned to St.
Paul's Mission, Montana, where he remained until January 4, 1936,
when he was taken to the Sacred Heart Hospital at Havre. Worn out
by a half a century of labor among the Indians, Father Feusi died on
January 23, 1936.
FOLCHI, ALOYSIUS: Father Aloysius M. Folchi, scion of a noble
Roman family, was born in the Eternal City on November 25, 1834.
Having entered the Society of Jesus on October 29, 1853, he crossed
the ocean shortly thereafter and began his novitiate at Frederick,
Maryland. It was while teaching at Gonzaga College, Washington,
D.C., that superiors, on account of some particular need of his
family, recalled him to Rome, dispensed him from his vows, and
advised him to return to his home. When his assistance was no
longer needed, he asked to be readmitted into the Society. Father
General Peter Beckx, however, told him to apply to some American
bishop to work in his diocese, and in time he might be readmitted
as a priest. After completing his studies, Father Folchi was ordained
in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, Austria, on November 6, 1864,
for the diocese of Charleston, South Carolina. He was readmitted
into the Society of Jesus, January 31, 1878. From 1879 to 1882 he
was stationed at St. Ignatius' Mission, Montana. The year 1882-83
he spent at the Coeur d'Alene mission, Desmet, Idaho. From 1883 to
1900 he labored among the Indians and whites in the vicinity of
Colville. From 1900 to 1909 Gonzaga College, Spokane, was the
headquarters for his missionary activities. Age and sickness finally
halted this zealous priest in the fall of 1909. He died on December
1 1 of that same year at Gonzaga.
222 BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
GARRAND, VICTOR: Father Victor Garrand was born at Royal
(Puy-de-D6me), France, May 8, 1848. He entered the Society of
Jesus on October 13, 1868. After missionary work in Syria and
Egypt, he came to Yakima, Washington, in 1885. In 1893 Father
Garrand was sent to begin a school and parish in Seattle. In 1895
he became pastor of the church in Missoula, and in 1897 he was sent
to Pendleton to become the first Jesuit pastor of St. Mary's Church.
He was recalled to France in June, 1899, and sent as a missionary to
Egypt and Algeria. He died at Constantine, Algeria, on March 6,
1925.
GIORDA, JOSEPH: Father Joseph Giorda was born of a rich and
noble family near Turin, Italy, March 19, 1823. He entered the
Society of Jesus on March 29, 1845. In his youth, according to all
accounts, he gave promise of becoming one of the most brilliant men
of his age. He came to America in 1858 and, after a short stay in
St. Louis, arrived at the Coeur d'Alene mission, Idaho, in the fall of
1861. Father Joset, in his short sketch of Father Giorda's life, does
not hesitate to call the latter the second founder of the Rocky
Mountain Missions, for, when Father Giorda was made superior-
general of the missions in 1862, he found but two missions: St.
Ignatius' Mission in Montana, and the Sacred Heart Mission among
the Coeur d'Alenes. The suppression of the latter, had, moreover,
been twice proposed by his predecessor. In 1861-62 he went to
California to bring back, if possible, the men borrowed from the
Rocky Mountain Mission to begin the California mission. He re-
turned north in 1862 with Father Anthony Ravalli and immediately
set about with characteristic earnestness to reopen St, Mary's Mission
among the Flatheads, and St. Paul's among the Colville Indians.
Moreover, he founded St. Peter's among the Blackfeet, the Mission
of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at Helena, St. Joseph's
among the Nez Perces, and accepted St. Joseph's among the Yakima
Indians, thus leaving eight residences where he had found but two.
He was superior-general from 1862 to 1866 and from 1869 to 1877.
Higher superiors were, in the latter year, forced to relieve Father
Giorda of his charge since his health was undermined by apoplexy.
He died at the Sacred Heart Mission among the Coeur d'Alene In-
dian's on August 4, 1882.
GOETZ, ANTHONY: Father Anthony Goetz was born on March
12, 1813, at Altkirch in the department of Haut Rhin, France. He
entered the Society of Jesus on May 27, 1835, and arrived in the
BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 223
Rocky Mountain Mission in 1847. During his first winter in the
mission, that of 1847-48, he lived with Father John Nobili at St.
Joseph's Mission at a place the French Canadians called "Spruce
Grove," in the mission of New Caledonia, or as it is now called,
British Columbia. Since Father Nobili was recalled from New Cale-
donia in 1848 and it was not thought advisable to leave Father Goetz
alone, he was transferred to the Sacred Heart Mission among the
Coeur d'Alenes in what is now the state of Idaho. In 1851 he was
called to St. Francis Xavier's on the Willamette by the superior of
the mission and was sent on to the newly founded mission of Cali-
fornia. On December 10, 1851, he was appointed pastor of the
parish church of San Jose. This charge he held until 1863. On
April 12, 1882, he died at the College of Santa Clara and was buried
in the cemetery of the California mission near the college. He was
in the seventieth year of his age and his forty-seventh in the Society.
GOLLER, HERMAN: Father Herman J. Goller, the son of well-to-
do parents, was born at Hagen, Westphalia, Germany, on September
19, 1867. At the age of twelve he was sent to the Jesuit College of
Stella Matutina at Feldkirch, Austria. He entered the novitiate of
the German province at Blyenbeck, Holland, on September 30, 1886,
leaving for Woodstock College, Maryland, in 1888. After his course
in philosophy he went to Gonzaga College, Spokane, in 1891, to
prefect and teach. In 1896 he returned to Woodstock to study
theology, where he was ordained priest in 1899. He made his fourth
year of theology at St. Louis University. For a year, 1901-2, he was
prefect of studies at Gonzaga College, Spokane. His year of "third
probation" at the Jesuit College, Brooklyn, Ohio, followed. He was
appointed acting president of Gonzaga College, July 31, 1905, and
the first provincial superior of the California province, July 31,
1909. He died from heart trouble at the Sacred Heart Hospital,
Spokane, Washington, on November 5, 1910.
GRASSI, URBAN: Father Urban Grassi was born at Girola in the
province of Voghera, Italy, November 25, 1830. He entered the
Society of Jesus on December 5, 1850. Three years later he arrived
at St. Louis and remained there for two years. From 1855 to 1861 he
taught in California at Santa Clara College and at St. Ignatius"
College, San Francisco. He was at St. Ignatius' Mission, Montana,
from 1861 to 1869. From 1866 to 1869 he was vice-superior of the
Rocky Mountain Missions. He was stationed at Colville from 1869
to 1871; at St. Joseph's, North Yakima, Washington, from 1871 to
224 BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
1876; at Colville again from 1876 to 1879; 1879-80 at Lewiston,
Idaho; from 1880 to 1884 at North Yakima, and from 1884 to 1886
he worked among the Okinagan Indians. The supervision of the
erection of Gonzaga College occupied him during the year 1886-87.
Then, after a year at North Yakima, he resided at Umatilla, Oregon,
until his death, which was brought on by pneumonia, on March 21,
1890.
HOECKEN, ADRIAN: Father Adrian Hoecken was born at Tilburg,
North Brabant, Holland, on March 18, 1815. His studies for the
priesthood were made at the seminary of Bois-Le-Duc, where he was
ordained deacon in May, 1839. He came to America the same year
and entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus on December 2.
After his ordination to the priesthood at St. Louis, May 30, 1842, by
His Excellency, Peter Richard Kenrick, coadjutor to Bishop Rosati,
he was sent to the Indian missions of the Rocky Mountains. He was
among the Kalispel Indians from 1844 to 1854, when St. Ignatius 9
Mission was on the lower Pend d'Oreille River, and in 1854 he
founded St. Ignatius' Mission where it now stands, in the Bitter Root
Valley of Montana. He was recalled to Missouri in 1861 because of
ill health. On Easter Monday, April 19, 1897, he died at Marquette
College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the age of eighty-two.
IMODA, JOHN B.: Father John Baptist Camillus Imoda was born in
Turin, Italy, November 29, 1829. He entered the Society of Jesus
on April 22, 1854, following the example set by his brother, Henry,
who was at that time already a priest with several years of experience
as a pastor in a town near Naples. After his two years of novitiate
at Massa e Carrara, Italy, he was made treasurer of the house. He
arrived at Frederick, Maryland, in May, 1858. From there he went
to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. The winter of
1859-60 was spent at St. Peter's Mission, Montana, but in the spring
of 1860, after the departure of Father Adrian Hoecken for St. Louis,
Missouri, he was sent to St. Ignatius' Mission, Montana. In June,
1861, however, he returned to St. Peter's with Father Joseph Giorda.
Although this mission was suppressed in 1866 because of the lack of
men, it was due to the earnest entreaty of Father Imoda that it was
reopened the following year. The years 1867-80 he spent at the
mission. From 1880 until his death on June 18, 1886, he was at the
cathedral church at Helena, Montana, having been from 1883 to
1886 the vicar-general of the diocese.
BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 225
JACQUET, ALOYSIUS: Father Aloysius Jacquet was born at Bruges,
Belgium, January 18, 1854. He entered the Society of Jesus on
March 19, 1872. It was during his year of "third probation" that
he received the order to proceed to the Rocky Mountain Mission, and
he arrived in Spokane on April 21, 1883. Until the fall of 1884, he
labored among the whites in Spokane, and the Indians and the whites
of the surrounding districts. In 1886 he ministered to the Kootenai
and Coeur d'Alene Indians. In 1887 he returned to build Our Lady
of Lourdes School in Spokane. In 1888, after successfully completing
this edifice, he was sent to St. Ignatius* Mission, Montana, but during
the next year, owing to ill health, he resided in California. In 1500,
the "builder" was sent from California to Nome, Alaska, to erect
a church. He served as a hospital chaplain in California from 1903
to 1913, when he was transferred to a hospital in Montreal, Canada,
where he lived until his death on March 27, 1922.
JOSET, JOSEPH: Father Peter Joseph Joset was born on August
27, 1810, at Courf aivre, in the French canton of Berne, Switzerland.
He received his early education from the vicar of the parish and
later from a school conducted by diocesan clergy in the neighboring
town of Delemont. In 1826 he began his studies at the Jesuit College
of Friburg, and on October 1, 1830, he entered the Society of Jesus.
After teaching and studying at the University of Friburg, he was
ordained there on September 19, 1840, by His Excellency, Peter
Tobias Yenni, Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva. He arrived at St.
Louis, Missouri, in 1843, too late to go West that year. After a
winter spent in teaching French and learning English, he came to the
Rocky Mountains in the spring of 1844. Sacred Heart Mission was
moved by Father Joset in the fall of 1845 to Cataldo on the Coeur
d'Alene River. He became superior-general of the Rocky Mountain
Missions in the fall of 1846. From 1851 to 1856 Father Joset was at
St. Paul's Mission, Kettle Falls, Washington. From 1857 to 1859 he
was at the Coeur d'Alene mission; from 1861 to 1871 at St. Paul's;
from 1871 to 1883 at Coeur d'Alene. In 1883 he took up residence
at St. Michael's Mission near Spokane, whence he visited all the small
towns around Spokane on horseback to say Mass and to hear confes-
sions. From 1889 to 1891 he was the instructor of the Fathers
making their year of "third probation" at Desmet, Idaho. In 1891,
after a stroke of apoplexy, Father Joset was removed from office,
but he remained at Desmet, preaching and hearing confessions until
his death on June 19, 1900.
226 BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
LA MOTTE, GEORGE DE: The son of a French army officer and his
English wife, Father George de la Motte was born at Schlettstadt
near Strasbourg in Alsace, France, February 19, 1861. After attend-
ing the school of the Eudist Fathers at Redon in Brittany, he entered
the Society of Jesus on September 7, 1878. His novitiate was made at
Angers, Frances, and his humanistic studies at Aberdovey in Wales.
So successful was he in the latter, that he was sent to take a licentiate
at the Sorbonne. It was while studying philosophy in Paris that he
volunteered for the Indian missions. After two years of theology at
the college on the Isle of Jersey, he went to Woodstock College,
Maryland, in 1888, where, on the completion of his course in 1889, he
was selected to defend all scholastic philosophy and theology, and,
after this "grand act," he was asked to remain at Woodstock as a
teacher of theology. He refused, and was seconded by the firm deter-
mination of his French provincial superior to recall him to France
if he were not permitted to go to the Rocky Mountain Mission.
While at Colville (1891-93), typhoid fever, contracted while caring
for a sick Indian, brought him to death's door. He recovered, but
the bad effects of this illness, added to the strain caused by the
preparation for the defense at Woodstock, so undermined his
strength that he carried the continual cross of ill health to his
grave. In 1895, after the year of "third probation" at Florissant,
Missouri, and a year at Desmet, Idaho, he was made superior and
professor of dogmatic theology in the scholasticate of St. Ignatius*
Mission, Montana. In 1899, with the removal of the house of studies
to Gonzaga, he became superior both of the college and of the
scholasticate. He was made superior-general of the Rocky Mountain
Mission in 1900, and in 1907, of the united California and Rocky
Mountain missions. With the formation of the California Province
in 1909, he went to live the last nine years of his life with "his"
Indians at St. Ignatius', Montana. Death came on Good Friday,
March 29, 1918.
LAUR, AUGUSTINE: Father Augustine Laure was born at Aups,
Provence, France, January 31, 1857. He entered the novitiate of
the Society of Jesus at Lons-le-Saulnier, France, on September 17,
1874. After studies in France and England, he went to America and
was ordained priest at Woodstock, Maryland, by Cardinal Gibbons
on August 27, 1887. In 1889, upon the completion of his fourth
year of theology, he was sent to Desmet Mission where he made his
year of "third probation" under Father Joset. In 1890 he was
BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 227
appointed to assist Father Garrand at North Yakima, where he died
on December 19, 1892.
MACKIN, CHARLES: Father Charles Mackin was born in North
Ireland, on September 29, 1856. His early education was at a "hedge
school" and later he attended a Protestant university. He came to the
United States in 1878. Soon afterwards, he went to Canada and
began to study at the Jesuit College of Sainte Marie, in Montreal. Two
years later, he returned to the United States and on October 9, 1880,
he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at West Park on the
Hudson. Father Cataldo called him to Spokane in August, 1886, and
on December 3 he was ordained priest by His Excellency, Aegidius
Junger, Bishop of Nesqually. From December 5, 1886 to 1888, he
was at the Colville mission. He made his year of "third probation"
from the middle of 1888 to August, 1889, at Desmet Mission under
Father Joset. August of 1889 saw his appointment as superior of
Gonzaga College and pastor of Spokane, Palouse, Coeur d'Alene,
Cheney, and Chewelah. In 1890 he began St. Joseph's Orphan Asy-
lum and St. Aloysius Parish Church. From 1891 to 1893 he was
superior of the novitiate of Desmet. He died at Port Townsend,
Washington, December 28, 1928.
MENETREY, JOSEPH: Father Joseph Menetrey was born in Friburg,
Switzerland, November 28, 1812, and he entered the Society of
Jesus on September 29, 1836. He arrived on August 13, 1846, via
Cape Horn, at St. Francis Xavier's Mission on the Willamette, Ore-
gon. From 1848 to 1854 he was stationed at the Coeur d'Alene
mission at Cataldo, Idaho. From 1854 to 1857 he was at St. Ignatius'
Mission, Montana; then, after two years at the Coeur d'Alene mission,
he returned to St. Ignatius* for three years. In 1862 he went to St.
Peter's Mission. The following year he was transferred to St. Paul's
Mission, Kettle Falls, Washington. In 1867 he was sent to Willam-
ette, near Portland, Oregon, to act as procurator for the missions.
In 1868 he returned to St. Ignatius' Mission. Three years of parochial
work (1874-77) in Helena, Montana, were followed by three years
at St. Mary's Mission, Montana. From 1880 to 1884 he was at St.
Ignatius' Mission, Montana. From 1884 to 1889 he served as assist-
ant pastor of St. Francis Xavier's Parish, Missoula, Montana. In the
latter year he retired to St. Ignatius' Mission, Montana, to prepare
for death, which came on April 27, 1891.
228 BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
MENGARINI, GREGORY: Born in Rome on July 21, 1811, Father
Gregory Mengarini entered the Society of Jesus on October 22, 1828.
In his second year of theology the young Jesuit volunteered to go to
the Rocky Mountains and was accepted. After completing his course
at the Roman College, he set out on June 21, 1840, from Leghorn
for Philadelphia, whence he went to St. Louis. Father Mengarini,
with Fathers De Smet and Point, and Brothers Huet, Specht, and
Claessens set out from St. Louis on April 24, 1841> for the moun-
tains. St. Mary's Mission, Montana, was founded in September of
the same year. "When, in 1842, Father Point and Brother Huet were
sent to found the Mission of the Sacred Heart among the Coeur
d'Alene Indians, Father Mengarini was left alone at St. Mary's
Mission, After the closing of St. Mary's Mission in 1850, Father
Mengarini was sent by the superior of the Missions, Father Accolti,
to Oregon, where he remained a year. In 1852 he was transferred
to the California mission. For thirty years treasurer of Santa Clara
College, Father Mengarini was removed only when apoplexy and fail-
ing eyesight incapacitated him for further work. He died at Santa
Clara College, September 23, 1886,
PALLADINO, LAWRENCE: Born at Bodia de Tiglieto, Italy, August
15, 1837, Father Lawrence Palladino received his early training at
the Junior Seminary in Genoa and later at Stazzlus. On November
18, 1855, he entered the novitiate of the Society near Massa e
Carrara, Italy. During the anticlerical agitation then brewing, this
novitiate was closed, and he was sent to complete his novitiate at
Verona. His studies, begun at Feldkirch in the Vorarlberg, Austria,
and continued at Fourvieres, France, were completed at Monaco.
After his ordination to the priesthood at I^Tice by the Ordinary, John
Peter Sola, in February, 1863, he left for Santa Clara, California.
He remained there until the fall of 1867. From 1867 to 1873 he was
at St. Ignatius' Mission, Montana. In 1874 he went to Helena and
bought the three blocks, whereon the cathedral, the school, and the
hospital now stand. He was made pastor of the church and, with
the coming of Bishop Brondel, he was appointed his secretary and
vicar-general. In 1894 was published Father Palladino's history of
the first half century of Catholicity in Montana, Indian and White
in the Northwest. From 1894 to 1897, he was president of Gonzaga
College, Spokane. After a year at the Immaculate Conception
Church, Seattle, he returned to Missoula for eight years. From 1906
to 1908, he was at Lewiston, Idaho. From 1908 to 1910, he was at
North Yakima, and after two years at Missoula, he returned to
BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 229
North Yakima for three more years. He resided at Mount St.
Michael's, Spokane, as the spiritual director of the community from
1915 to 1917. He then returned to Missoula where he remained
until his death, which occurred at St. Patrick's Hospital, on August
19, 1927.
POINT, NICHOLAS: Father Nicholas Point was born at Rocroy in
the diocese of Reims, France, on April 10, 1799. In 1810 he was
received among the students of Latin under the tutorship of the
village cure. After two years he left the school and found a position
in a lawyer's office. In 181 5 he again entered the school. In 1819 he
petitioned for admission into the Society of Jesus and was accepted
by Father Loriquet, Rector of the College of St. Acheul, but spent
the next two years as a prefect of discipline at the college. He
entered the novitiate of the Society at Montrouge, France, on Sep-
tember 23, 1822. Forced to interrupt his novitiate by ill health,
he did not pronounce his first vows until March 9, 1827. When the
college was closed in 1828, he began the study of theology at Brig,
Switzerland. During the year 1831-32 he was prefect at Friburg,
Switzerland. Driven from Switzerland to Spain and expelled from
there in 1834, he arrived in the United States on December 13 of the
same year. In June, 1836, he was at Bardstown, Kentucky, and
shortly thereafter at St. Mary*s College, Kansas. He was founder and
first Rector of St. Charles' College, Grand Coteau, Louisiana, During
the year, 1840-41, he was a missionary at Westport, Missouri. In
1841 he went to the Rocky Mountains and helped to establish St.
Mary's Mission, Montana. In 1842 he founded the Coeur d'Alene
mission on the St. Joe River in Idaho. In 1844 he returned to St.
Mary's Mission. The year 1846 found him among the Blackfoot
Indians. In 1847, he received an order which recalled him to Canada.
He died at Quebec, July 4, 1868.
PRANDO, PETER PAUL: Father Peter Paul Prando was born in the
diocese of Vercelli, Italy, on January 1, 1845. He entered the Society
of Jesus, September 9, 1864, and was ordained priest after a brilliant
course of studies at Monaco and Rome. A few years later, he volun-
teered and was accepted for the Rocky Mountain Missions. Father
Prando arrived at St. Peter's Mission in 1880. For nearly thirty
years he labored among the Cheyennes, Crows, and the Piegans, but
Isteumate (Iron-Eyes) , as he was called by the Indians because of
his horn-rimmed spectacles, is known as the Apostle of the Crows,
for it was among them that he was most successful. He baptized
230 BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
with his own hand over three thousand Indians. "Worn out by hard-
ships, penance, and the ravages of a painful disease, he died at St.
Michael's Mission near Spokane on June 20, 1906, at the age of
sixty-one.
RAGARU, ALOYSIUS: Father Aloysius Ragaru was born at Combree,
France, November 29, 1847. He entered the Society of Jesus on
November 10, 1869, and came to St. Michael's Mission, Washington,
in 1885. In 1886 he was sent to Helena, Montana, as assistant pastor.
From 1887 to 1901 he was in Alaska. In 1901 he was sent to Holy
Family Mission, Montana, and, in the following year, to St. Andrew's,
Oregon. In 1903 he returned to Nulato, Alaska. In 1904 and 1905
he was at Tanana and St. Paul's, a station of Tanana. The next year
he was sent to St. Ignatius* Mission, Montana. In 1907 Father Ragaru
was transferred to the French Canadian Province. Death came at
Montreal, Canada, May 24, 1921.
RAPPAGUOSI, PHILIP: Father Philip Rappagliosi was born of a
noble family in Rome on September 14, 1841, and entered the Novi-
tiate of San Andrea, Rome, September 28, 1856. From 1858 to 1860
he studied rhetoric. In 1860, because of the turbulent state of
Italy, he was sent to Vals, France, to study philosophy. At the end
of the second year, he was recalled to the Roman College, where he
completed his course in 1863. After philosophy he taught for several
years in Rome and Ferrentino. One year of theology at Rome was
followed by three years at Laval, France, and the year of "third pro-
bation" at Tronchiennes, Belgium. His ardent request to be sent to
the Rocky Mountains was granted, and he arrived in Helena, Mon-
tana, December 21, 1873. After a short rest, he proceeded to St.
Mary's Mission, Montana. Shortly thereafter, he went to St. Ignatius'
Mission, Montana. Worn out by hunger, cold, fatigue, and grief,
he died, February 7, 1878.
RAVALLI, ANTHONY: Father Anthony Ravalli was born at
Ferrara, Italy, on May 16, 1812. He entered the Society of Jesus
on November 12, 1827. At the close of his novitiate, he studied the
classics and philosophy. Then he taught for two years at Turin,
Italy. After the study of theology, to which he had added courses
in medicine, art, and mechanics, he was ordained priest. He pro-
nounced his final vows while on his way to America. The vessel
crossed the bar of the Columbia on July 31, 1844, and he spent the
BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 231
following winter at St. Paul's Mission on the Willamette River, Ore-
gon. In the spring of 1845 he was sent to Colville to build a church.
A month later orders came, transferring him to St. Mary's Mission,
Montana, to take the place of Father Zerbinati who had died during
the summer. In 1850, St. Mary's was temporarily closed, and he was
sent to the Sacred Heart Mission among the Coeur d'Alene Indians.
From 1857 to 1860, he was at Colville. From I860 to 1863 he was
Master of Novices and spiritual adviser of the community at Santa
Clara College, California. In 1863, he returned to St. Ignatius*
Mission, Montana. From October, 1864, to 1866, he was stationed
at St. Peter's Mission, Montana. In the fall of the latter year, he
returned to St. Mary's Mission, where he remained until his death on
October 2, 1884. The church at Cataldo, Idaho, is a monument to
his genius. The lives he saved by means of his medical skill were
legion.
REBMANN, JAMES J.: Father James J. Rebmann was born at
Speyer, Bavaria, Germany, on June 20, 1851. He entered the diocesan
normal school at the age of five and remained there for fourteen
years. He entered the Society of Jesus, April 10, 1872. After his
ordination to the priesthood in 1884, he came to Woodstock, Mary-
land, from Europe. He had been there only a year when he was sent
to Spokane, Washington, to be the first president of Gonzaga College
and pastor of St. Aloysius Church. In 1890 he was appointed treas-
urer of St. Ignatius' Mission, Montana. From 1891 to 1897 he was
superior of different Indian missions in Montana. In 1897 he re-
turned to Gonzaga as superior and in 1898 he became its first vice-
rector. In 1900 he was again appointed pastor of St. Aloysius Parish,
while at the same time he taught moral theology to the young Jesuits
residing at the college. Sent to Seattle College in 1904, Father
Rebmann was soon forced by ill health to return to Gonzaga, where
he held the office of treasurer until 1910. He was the founder and
first pastor of St. Francis Xavier's Church, Spokane. In 1924 he
relinquished this post and returned to Gonzaga as spiritual director
of the community, until illness necessitated his removal to the Sacred
Heart Hospital, Spokane, where he died, November 5, 1935.
ROBAUT, ALOYSIUS: Born at Peillon, France, April 12, 1855,
Father Aloysius Robaut entered the Society of Jesus, March 18, 1873.
He arrived at St. Michael's Mission, Spokane, Washington, in 1883.
In 1885 he was sent to St. Francis Regis* Mission, Colville, "Wash-
ington, but the next year he was transferred to the newly founded
mission of Alaska. In 1887 he was at Holy Cross; in 1888 at Nulato;
232 BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
in 1889 once more at Holy Cross; then, for two more years, 1890
to 1892, at Nulato. From 1892 to 1916 he was attached to Holy
Cross, although for several years he resided at Kuskokwim and
Pimute. From 1916 to 1918 he was at Akularak. Then after a year
at St. Michael's Mission, Alaska, Father Robaut returned to Holy
Cross, where he remained until his death on December 18, 1930.
ROUGE, STEPHEN DE: Father Stephen de Rouge was born of a
noble family at Chenille, France, on January 28, 1860. He received
his early education at home. From 1876 to 1879 he studied at the
Jesuit College at Mans, France. He entered the novitiate of the
Society of Jesus at Angers, August 14, 1879. Driven from France
by the anticlerical laws of March 29, 1880, he finished his novitiate
at Aberdovey in Wales. He arrived at St. Ignatius* Mission, Montana,
in 1883 and was ordained there in 1885. He worked among the
Okinagan Indians from 1885 to 1888, when he returned to France
to make his year of "third probation" and to solicit funds for the
Rocky Mountain Missions. From 1890 until his death, May 9, 1916,
at St. Mary's Mission, Omak, Washington, he labored among the
Okinagan Indians.
RUELLAN, Loins: Louis Marie Ruellan was born at Pordic near
Saint Brieuc, France, December 15, 1846. His education he received
at the Institute of Saint Charles at Saint Brieuc. He entered the
novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Angers, February 1, 1870, and
was ordained priest at Laval on September 14, 1879. The next year
the Society was suppressed in France and Father Ruellan was sent to
the French novitiate in England near Canterbury. In 1881 he was
sent to the Apostolic School at Littlehampton and in August of
1 882, he left England for America. But, since Father Cataldo wished
him to have a good knowledge of the English language, it was not
until April, 1884, that he was summoned from the East to the Rocky
Mountain Missions. Immediately he was appointed superior at
Spokane Falls, a charge which included the care of the white people
at Spokane Falls and the supervision of the building of Gonzaga
College. When in September of the same year Father Cataldo had to
leave the mission to attend the Council of Baltimore, he appointed
Father Ruellan to be superior in his absence. On December 13, he
left Spokane to visit the Colville residence, He arrived on December
22 at Colville, where he opened the retreat for the lay brothers on
January 2. The following day a sudden attack of pneumonia
brought him to his bed. He died on January 7, 1885.
BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 233
SOER, ALOYSIUS: Father Aloysius Soer was born in Holland, No-
vember 8, 1853, and entered the Society of Jesus on September 26,
1872. He began his year of " third probation" in 1885 and arrived
at St. Joseph's Mission among the Nez Perces at Slickpoo, Idaho, on
August 12, 1886. Father Cataldo, in his history of St. Joseph's
Mission, praises very highly Father Soer's great zeal for the conversion
of the Nez Perces. In 1905 he was sent to Holy Family Mission,
Montana, where he remained until shortly before his death, which
took place at Great Falls, Montana, November 29, 1931.
Tosi, PASCAL: Father Pascal Tosi was born at Santo Vito in the
province of Forli, Italy, April 25, 1836. He made his studies for the
priesthood at the seminary at Bertinoro, Italy, and was admitted into
the Society of Jesus on October 24, 1862. He came to St. Ignatius'
Mission, Montana, in 1866. From 1867 to 1877 he was near Colville,
Washington: for three years at St. Paul's, and the remaining seven
years at St. Francis Regis' Mission. From 1877 to 1886 he was sta-
tioned at the Coeur d'Alene mission. In 1886 he was sent to Alaska.
From 1887 to 1894 he was vice-superior of the Alaska mission, with
his residence at Holy Cross. In 1894 he was named first prefect
apostolic of Alaska and superior-general of the missions. In 1897 he
was sent to Juneau in southeastern Alaska, where he died on January
14, 1898.
VAN DER POL, JOHN BAPTIST: Father John Baptist van der Pol was
born at Osterhout, Holland, January 24, 1862. He entered the
Belgian novitiate at Arlon on September 24, 1883. After his novi-
tiate, he studied philosophy two years at Louvain. For the third year
he was sent to Woodstock, Maryland. After a year at Florissant,
Missouri, and three years at the Colville mission in Washington, he
returned to Woodstock for four years of theology. He was ordained
there in 1895. Then, for a year he was director of the school at St.
Labre's Mission, Montana. From 1897 to 1900 he was superior at
St. Francis Xavier's Mission among the Crow Indians in Montana.
Then he made his year of "third probation" at Florissant, Missouri.
In 1901, he was sent to Alaska to help Father Jacquet at Nome, but,
because of a mistaken judgment of a superior, he was soon recalled.
On his return, he was made treasurer of Gonzaga College, Spokane,
Washington. When the Superior had received more exact informa-
tion from Alaska, he saw his error and sent Father van der Pol back
to Alaska as the superior of the residence at Nome. During the year
1906-7 he was at Douglas, Alaska. From 1908 to 1910 he was at
234 BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
St. Francis' Mission, South Dakota. From 1910 to 1925 he labored at
Cordova, Valdez, Seward, Douglas, Ketchikan, and other towns of
southeastern Alaska. He was at Lewiston, Idaho, in 1925; in 1926
he was chaplain at Seattle College. From 1927 until his death he was
pastor of St. Patrick's Church, Hillyard, Washington. He died on
May 16, 1930.
VAN GORP, LEOPOLD: Father Leopold van Gorp was born on June
11, 1834, at Turnhout, Belgium. On September 25, 1855, he entered
the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Tronchiennes, Belgium. When
he had completed his philosophical and theological studies in America,
he was ordained priest on June 24, 1865, by His Excellency, Martin
John Spalding, Archbishop of Baltimore. In 1868 he was made
superior of the residence at Helena, Montana. In 1875 he became
the superior at St. Ignatius* Mission, Montana, and in 1888, the
temporal administrator of the same mission. His ability in financial
matters was well employed during his term as procurator of the
Rocky Mountain Missions from 1890 to 1892. From 1893 to 1900 he
was superior-general of the missions. From 1900 to 1904 he again
held office as procurator of the missions. The year 1903 was spent
in visiting the missions in Alaska. Appointed superior of St.
Ignatius' Mission, Montana, in 1904, he held that office until his death
on April 7, 1905.
VREBOSCH, ALOYSIUS: Father Aloysius Vrebosch was born in
Louvain, Belgium, on June 13, 1873, and came to America at the
age of sixteen. He entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at
Desmet, Idaho, October 26, 1893. From 1895 to 1898 he studied
philosophy at St. Ignatius' Mission, Montana. From 1898 to 1903 he
taught at St. Francis Xavier's Mission among the Crow Indians. In
1903 he began the study of theology at Gonzaga College, Spokane,
Washington, where he was ordained priest in 1906. From 1906 to
1925 Father Vrebosch was at St. Francis Xavier's Mission, Montana.
He was in Tacoma, Washington, from 1925 until his death in an
automobile accident, December 13, 1928.
Notes
To avoid many lengthy repetitions, several symbols and abbrevia-
tions are used in these notes. (O) placed after a note indicates that
the document is preserved in the Historical Archives of the Oregon
Province of the Society of Jesus, located at Gonzaga University,
Spokane, Washington. (SPL) indicates the Archives of the North-
west Room in the Spokane Public Library. Other abbreviations are
Voyages for P. J. De Smet's Voyages aux Montagnes Rocbeuse;
Oregon for the same author's Voyages dans I'Amerique Septentrio-
nal? Oregon; CR, DeSmet for Chittenden and Richardson's Life,
Letters and Travels of Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet, $./.; Ann. Prop.
for Annales de la Propagation de la Foi (Lyon) ; WL for Woodstock
Letters; Jersey for Lettres des Scholastiques de Jersey; Mold for
Lettres de Hold.
CHAPTER I
1. Bolduc a Cayenne, February 15, 1844, printed in Ann. Prop., XVII, 463.
2. F. N. Blanchet, Historical Sketches of the Catholic Church in Oregon, p. 7.
3. Joseph Norbert Provencher, Titular Bishop of Juliopolis (Galatia) at Red
River, first Bishop of St. Boniface, Manitoba, and Vicar Apostolic of northwestern
Canada, was born on February 12, 1787. From the time of his ordination as a priest
on December 21, 1811, until May 22, 1822, he labored zealously in various mission
fields of western Canada. He was consecrated bishop and designated vicar apostolic
on this latter date. The vicanate of Oregon City and that of Nesqually were at-
tached to Red River until 1 843 ; not until 1 846 were the vicanate of Victoria and
that of Walla Walla given autonomy. Bishop Provencher, therefore, was in imme-
diate charge of the spiritual welfare of the Catholics in the Oregon Country for a
good portion of his life which ended on June 7, 1853.
4. Provencher to McLoughlin, June 6, 1835, printed in Blanchet, op. cif., p. 22.
5. Provencher to All the Families Settled in the Willamette Valley and Other
Catholics Beyond the Rocky Mountains, June 8, 1 83 5, printed in Blanchet, loc cit.
6 Ibid., p. 23.
7. Joseph Signay, first archbishop of Quebec, was born on November 8, 1778.
After completing his studies he was ordained a priest at Longueuil on March 28,
1802. He began working in the small towns of Chambly, Longueuil, Saint Constant
and continued in this task until 1814 when he was appointed cure* in Quebec. On
May 27, 1827 he was consecrated coadjutor bishop of Quebec, an office which he
filled until 1831 when he became bishop of Quebec. In 1844 he was made first
archbishop of Quebec. This pioneer ecclesiastic died on October 1, 1850.
236 NOTES
8. Simpson to Signay, February 17, 1838, printed in Blanchet, op. cit., p. 25.
9. Francis Norbert Blanchet, first Archbishop of Oregon City, was born on
September 3, 1795, at Saint-Pierre-de-la-Riviere-du-Sud in the county of Mont-
magny. After completing the required studies in Quebec he was ordained on July
18, 1819. Richibucto, New Brunswick, was the scene of his labors until 1828 when
he was assigned to Les Cedres, where he remained as cure until his departure for
the Oregon Country in 1838. In Montreal, on July 2J, 1845, he was consecrated
bishop and a year later, on July 24, 1846, he was placed over the newly erected
archdiocese of Oregon City, Until his retirement in 1882, he administered his
see with great devotion. Oregon's pioneer missionary and archbishop died on June
18,1883.
10. Modests Demers, first Bishop of Victoria, B.C., was born at St. Nicholas in
Levis County on October 11, 1809. He pursued his studies in Quebec, where he
was ordained on February 7, 1836. Two years after his ordination he accompanied
Francis N. Blanchet to the Oregon Country. At Oregon City on November 30,
1847, he was consecrated first bishop of Victoria. During 1870 he was present at
the Vatican Council in Rome. His death occurred at Victoria on July 21, 1871.
11. Blanchet, op. cit., p. 26.
12. Ibid., p. 27,
13. lM.,p. 78.
CHAPTER II
1. Concilia Provmcialia, Baltimori Habita ab Anno 1829 usque ad Annum 1840,
p. 100.
2. Rosati a Roothan, October 20, 1839, printed in Ann. Prop., XII, 275-76.
3. IM.,p. 276.
4. Ibid.
5. CR, DeSmet, I, 29; also Victor, The River of the West, p.,233.
6. Gray, History of Oregon, p. 173.
7. De Smet, Voyages, p. 124.
8. Rosati a Roothan, October 20, 1839, printed in Ann. Prop., XII, 276-77.
9. Ibid., p. 277.
10. Verhaegen a Rosati, October 21, 1839, quoted in Garraghan, The Jesuits of
the Middle United States, II, 248-49.
11. Verhaegen a Rosati, November 8, 1839, quoted in Garraghan, op. ctt., II,
2JO.
12. Davis, "Peter John De Smet, The Years of Preparation, 1801-1837," Pacific
Northwest Quarterly, XXXII (1941), 167.
13. Ibid., p. 169.
14. Charles Nerinckx was born on October 2, 1761, in the village of Herffelin-
gen in Brabant. After his ordination in 178J, he worked at various times in
Mechlin and Everberg-Meerbeke until 1804 when he left Belgium because of re-
strictions imposed by the Revolutionary officials. The next twenty years of his life
were given generously to the Kentucky mission. In 1817 and in 1821, he returned
to Belgium to seek men and money for his mission. Peter De Smet was one of nine
young men who came to the United States with Father Nerinckx in 1821. Charles
Nerinckx died at St. Genevieve, Missouri, on August 12, 1824.
1 J. Davis, op. cit., pp. 170-71.
16. Ibid., p. 1*6.
17. De Smet a Nicolet, April 21, 1840. (SPL)
18. Ibid.
NOTES 237
19. Ibid. Andrew Drips was born in "Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in
1789. Throughout his life he was more or less constantly engaged in the fur trade.
He and eight other men formed the Missouri Fur Company in 1820; later he was
associated with Fontenelle in a private venture, and still later he was in the employ
of the American Fur Company. President John Tyler appointed him Indian agent
for the tribes of the Upper Missouri for the years 1 842-46. When his term expired
he rejoined the American Fur Company and remained with this group until his
death on September 1, 1860, in Kansas City, Missouri.
Henry Frapp (Fraeb) was a well-known fur trader of that time. At various
times he had been associated with Thomas Fitzpatrick in the fur trade and from
1830 to 1834 Frapp was a partner of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. It is
generally thought that he was killed in a battle with the Sioux and Cheyenne
Indians in August of 1841,
Ledger is not so easily traced. Mention of this man by De Smet constitutes a
problem which has not yet been solved.
20. De Smet a Chanoine de la Croix, February 4, 1841, printed in Voyages, p. 1.
21. Ibid., pp. 13-14. Chimney Rock is 571 miles west of Independence, Missouri,
near the north branch of the Platte River, about ten miles west of Bridgeport and
three miles south-southwest of Bayard, Nebraska. This formation of earthy lime-
stone was some two hundred feet in height (five hundred feet if considered as one
with the hill on which it stood), and served as an important landmark, since it
could be seen for forty miles.
22. Ibtd., pp. 18-19. Independence Rock is located 838 miles west of Independ-
ence, Missouri, at 107 56' W! longitude and 42 29' 36" N. latitude. Today it
introduces the traveler into the valley of the Sweetwater in Natrona County,
Wyoming.
23. South Pass is situated at 42 26' N. latitude and 109 26' W. longitude, at
the south end of the Wind River Mountains. The pass lies in the Wyoming Basin
which extends between the northern and the southern Rocky Mountains. This
pass, which leads from the Sweetwater branch of the North Platte west to the Big
Sandy branch of Green River, is twenty miles wide and 7,489 feet at the summit.
24. De Smet a Chanoine de la Croix, February 4, 1841, printed in Voyages, p. 5.
25. De Smet a un Pere de la Compagnie de Jesus, February 4, 1841, printed in
Ann. Prop., XIII, 488.
26. De Smet a Chanoine de la Croix, February 4, 1841, printed in Voyages, p. 20.
27. CH,De$met,l,2l7.
28. De Smet, Voyages, p. 30.
29. CR, DeSmet, I, 262.
30. De Smet a un Pere de la Compagnie de J&us, February 4, 1841, printed in
Ann. Pro.,XIII, 488.
31. CSi,De$met,l,222.
32. Ibid., I, 223, footnote.
33. JW.,I,223.
34. De Smet a Chanoine de la Croix, February 4, 1841, printed in Voyages, p. 35.
35. Ibid., p. 36.
36. CR, DeSmet, I, 227.
37. Ibtd., I, 229-30.
38. Ibid., I, 231.
39. Ibid., I, 233-34.
40. Ibid., I, 234.
41. De Smet a Chanoine de la Croix, February 4, 1841, printed in Voyages, p. 78.
238 NOTES
42. CR, DeSmet, I, 273.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid., I, 274.
CHAPTER HI
1. De Smet a Roothan, May 15, 1841, quoted in Garraghan, op* cit., II, 259.
2. De Smet to Verhaegen, June 2, 1841, printed in CR, DeSmet, I, 278.
3. Thomas Fitzpatrick, famous guide and scout, was born in county Cavan
Ireland, in 1799. He was called "Broken Hand" by the Indians because he had lost
a finger and otherwise mutilated his left hand when a rifle burst. Until 1847 he
engaged in the fur trade: with Ashley in 1823, with Smith in 1824, as an active
partner of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1830, and with Bridger and
Sublette in 1834. Fitzpatrick acted as guide to Marcus Whitman and Samuel Parker
for part of their trip of 1835, and he performed the same service for the group
with whom De Smet traveled in 1841. From 1847 until his death in Washington,
D. C., in 1854, he was Indian agent to the tribes along the trails to the "West.
Cf Le Roy R. Haf en and W. J. Ghent, Broken Hand; The Life Story of Thomas
Fttzpatnck, Chief of the Uountean Uen. Denver, Old West Publishing Co, 1931.
4. Point, "Recollections of the Rocky Mountains," WL> XII, 6.
5. Ibtd.
6. Zw?.,Xn, 16.
7. CR, DeSmet, I, 293.
8. lbid.,1,294.
9. De Smet aux Religieuses The*resiennes de Termonde, October 26, 1841, printed
in Voyages, p. 177.
10. De Smet a , August 16, 1841, printed in Voyages, pp. 127-28.
11. Mengarini, "The Rocky Mountains, Memoirs of Father Gregory Mengarini,"
TPZ,XVII,307.
12. Ibid., XVin, 34.
13. CR., DeSmet, I, 35*.
14. Ibtd.,1, 354.
15. IW.,I,359.
16. Mengarini, "The Rocky Mountains, etc.," WL, XVIII, 36.
17. De Smet, Voyages, p. 264.
18. CSi, DeSmet, I, 376.
19. Ibid.,l, 381.
20. #/</., I, 3 83.
21. Blanchet, op. cit., pp. 129-30.
22. Mengarini, "The Rocky Mountains, etc.," WL, XVIII, 36.
23. CR, DeSmet, 1, 396.
CHAPTER IV
1. Point, "Recollections, etc.," WL, XH, 147.
2. !&</., XII, 148.
3. /., XII, 148-49.
4. Josct, MSS., "History of the Coeur d'Alene," p. 2. (O)
5. Point, "Recollections, etc.," WL t XIH, 5-6.
6. Ibid., XIII, 6-7.
7. Joset, MSS., "Sketch of the Sacred Heart Mission, p. 2. (O)
8. Ibid.
NOTES 239
9. Joset, MSS., "History of the Coeur d'Alene," p. 4. (O)
10. McLoughhn to De Smet, September 27, 1841, printed in CR, DeSmet, IV,
1555.
11. CR, DeSmet, I, 388.
12. DeSmet, Lettres des &R. PP. P. D<? Smet et A. Vercruysse, p. 41.
13. Ibid.
14. ZW.,p.42.
15. CR, DeSmet, II, 449.
16. De Smet a Mon cher Frere, October 9, 1844, printed in Oregon, p. 70.
17. De Smet, Lettres des RR PP. P. De Smet et A. Vercruysse, p. 46.
18. O'Hara, Pioneer Catholic Htstory of Oregon, pp. 129-30.
19. CR, DeSmet, I, 342. Pend d'Oreilles or "Ear Drop" was a popular name
given these Indians by the early French-Canadian trappers. Cf. Hodge, Handbook
of American Indians, I, 646.
20. Joset a Fomllot, February 13, 1 847, printed in Ann. Prop., XXI, 1 53.
21. De Smet to Verhaegen, July 26, 1846, printed in De Smet, Oregon Missions,
p. 248.
22. Joset a Fouillot, February 13,1 847, printed in Ann. Prop., XXI, 153.
23. CR, DeSmet, II, 467.
24. Ibtd., II, 468.
25. Ibid., II, 474. These rocky caverns are located in the cliffs across the Clark
Fork River from Cusick, Washington. The larger of the two caverns is about 75
feet wide and 50 feet long; the smaller is little more than an indentation in the cliff.
26. ;W.,n,471.
27. Ibtd.
28. Ibid., II, 480.
29. Joset, MSS., "St. Ignatius Mission, 1845-46." (O)
30. CR, DeSmet, II, 477.
31. Accolti a De Smet, February 9, 1846, quoted in Garraghan, op. ctt., II, 327.
32. Nobili a De Smet, June 1, 1846, printed in Oregon, pp. 196-97.
33. Ibid., p. 197.
34. Ibtd., pp. 197-98.
35. Ibid., p. 198.
36. Ibtd.,pp. 198-99.
37. De Smet au Directeur des Pre*cis Historiques, January 18, 1858, printed in
De Smet, Cinquante Nouvelles Lettres, pp. 465-66.
38. CR, DeSmet, II, 494.
39. Ibtd., II, 472.
40. Ibid., II, 572.
41. De Smet a Monseigneur , August 7, 1845, printed in Oregon, p. 90.
42. Ibtd , p 92.
43. Joset, MSS., "Notes on the Colville Mission." (O)
CHAPTER V
1. Mengarini, "The Rocky Mountains, etc,," WL, XVIII, 40.
2. Ibtd., XVTII, 34.
3. Ibtd., XVIII, 143.
4. Oregon, pp 263-64.
5. Ibid., p. 264.
6. Classens to , n.d. (O)
240 NOTES
7. Mengarini, "The Rocky Mountains, etc.," WL, XVTII, 151.
8. Ravalli to Palladino, December 8, 1879. (O)
9. Hoecken ad Roothan, March 25, 1849, quoted in Garraghan, op. cit , II,
308-9.
10. Ravalli to Palladino, December 8, 1879, (O)
11. Joset, MSS., "Origin of St. Ignatius Mission." (O)
12. CR, DeSmet,IV, 1232-33.
13. Ibid., IV, 1233-34.
14. Ibid., IV, 1233.
15. Hoecken a De Smet, July, 1855. Copy in Hoecken's Letter Book. (O)
16. Mere Marie-Antoinette, L'lnstitut de let Providence, Vol. V: Les Soeurs de la
Provtdence en Oregon, pp. 195-201.
17. Palladino, Indian and White in the Northwest, p. 144.
18. Palladino, Education for the Indtan, p. 10.
19. James O'Connor, "The Flathead Indians/' Records of the American Catholic
HtsfoncalSoctety,m (1883-91), 102.
20. Palladino, Education for the Indian, p. 3.
21. McKeogh to [A Woodstock Theologian], n.d , printed in WL, XXVI, 83.
Thomas C. McKeogh was a young Jesuit seminarian attached to the Missouri
province. At the time this letter was written he was studying theology at St.
Ignatius Mission, Montana.
22. Messenger of the Sacred Heart, XXXVI, 1119.
23. Palladino, Indtan and Whtte tn the Northwest, p. 172.
24. -Guidi to Cataldo, December 27, 1881, printed in WL, XII, 52.
25. J. O'Connor, op. cit., pp. 95-96.
26. [A Father of St. Ignatius' Mission] to , n,d., printed in WL, XI, 184.
27. MS., "Diary of Reverend George de la Motte, S.J.," p. 39. (O)
28. Sullivan, "Good Friday Among the Flathead," The Indtan Sentinel, IV, 54.
29. Kuppens, MS., "Corrections of Indian and White in the Northwest," (O)
30. Palladino, Indtan and White tn the Northwest, p. 196,
3 1. Kuppens, MS., op. ctt., (O)
32. Ibtd.
33. Ibid.
34. MS., "Sketch of Rappagliosi's Life." (O)
35. Ibtd.
36. Prando to Cataldo, January 13, 1881, printed in WL, X, 146,
37. Prando to Cataldo, 1881, printed in WL, XII, 37,
38. Prando a Cataldo, February, 1884, printed m Missione Delia Provincta
Torinese Delia Compagnta di Gem Montagne Rocciose Delia America Settentrto-
nale,pp. 36-37.
39. J. A. Viall, Supt. of Indians for Montana to the Commissioner for Indian
Affairs, September 15, 1871, printed in The Report of the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs 1871, p. 409.
40. Palladino, Indian and Whtte tn the Northwest, p. 306,
41. MS., "Petition," October 10, 1866. (O)
42. MS., "Deed," December 28, 1866. (O)
43. O'Gorman to [Grassi], December 11, 1867. (O)
44. "Agreement," May 5, 1884. Certified typescript copy. (O)
45. Brondel to Cataldo, October 31, 1883. (O)
46. Palladino to Cataldo, May 31, 1881. (O)
47. Prando to Cataldo, n.d., printed in WL, XII, 306.
48. Ibtd.
NOTES 241
49. Palladino, Indian and 'White in the Northwest, p. 228.
50. Bougis a De Beaucourt, February 26, 1892, printed in Jersey, May, 1892,
p. 128.
51. Bougis a , May 28, 1893, printed in Jersey, November, 1893, p. 325.
52. Bougis i De Beaucourt, February 9, 1894, printed in Jersey, December, 1894,
p. 333.
53. C. C. Uhlenbeck, Original Blackfoot Texts, p. 5.
54. MSS., "Litterae Annuae Missionis Sanctae Familiae," 1901-1904. (O)
55. J. A. Viall, Supt. of Indians for Montana, to the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, September 15, 1871, printed in The Report of the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs 1*71, & 411.
56. Eberschweiler, MS., "Sketch of St. Paul's," p. 2. (O)
57. Eberschweiler to Cataldo, May 2, 1886. (O)
58. Charles J. Kappler, ed., Indian Affairs Laws and Treaties, I, 265.
59. A. O. Simons, U.S. Indian Agent, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
August 26, 1890, printed in The Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
1890, p 130.
60. CR, DeS-met,!, 239.
61. Ibid., I, 397-98.
62. Ibid., Ill, 956.
63. Barcelo to Cataldo, October 7, 1880. (O)
64. Ibid.
65. Ibid., July 15, 1881. (O)
66. Ibid., July 22, 1881. (O)
67. Prando, MSS., "Sketch of St. Francis Xavier Mission/* p. 2. (O)
68. Ibid., p. 8.
69. Ibid., p, 9.
70. Ibid., p. 12.
71. Ibid.
72. Ibid., p. 13.
73. Joseph Bandini [, SJ.,] to M. P. Wyman, U. S. Indian Agent, July 6, 1893,
printed in The Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs I #93, p. 181.
74. MSS., "Historia Domus Missionis Sti Francisci Xaverii," 1895-98," p. 2. (O)
75. Barcelo to [Cataldo], September 16, 1882. (O)
76. Barney Old Coyote, "An Indian's Appreciation," The Indian Sentinel, U,
295.
77. Ibid.
78. Barcelo to [Cataldo], July 21, 1883. (O)
79. Arendzen, "The Cheyenne and Their Catholic Mission," The Indian Sentinel,
H, 68.
80. Ibid., IT, 70.
81. Ibid.,ll,7\.
82. Parkman, The Jesuits in North America, p. 84.
CHAPTER VI
1. Joset, MSS., "History of the Coeur d'Alene," p. 5. (O)
2. Joset, MSS., "Sketch of the Sacred Heart Mission Church." (O)
3. Ibid.
4. 1. 1. Stevens, in Reports of Explorations and Surveys etc., XII, 134.
5. De Smet, New Indian Sketches, p. 66.
6. Stevens to Joset, November 28, 1855. (O)
242 NOTES
7. Wright to Joset, September 17, 1858. (O) This letter, with others, appears
in "The Jesuits and the Coeur d'Alene Treaty o 18 58" by William N. Bischoff,
S J., and Charles M. Gates in the Pacific Northwest Quarterly, XXXIV (1543),
178.
8. Mullan to Congiato, September 17, 1858, printed in WL, XVII, 89.
9. Cataido to De Smet, April 2, 1872, printed in WL, II, 58.
10. Sherman, "Across the Continent," WL, XI, 155-56.
11. Diomedi, "Sketches of Modern Indian Life," WL, XXIII, 32.
12. MSS., "Vote of Thanks Tendered to Mr. Cataido." (O)
13. "The Missions of the Rocky Mountains in 1881," The Messenger of the
Sacred Heart, XVII (1882), 88.
14. Robaut to Bougis, October 1, 1883, printed in WL, XIII, 152.
15. MS., "Accounts of the Tertian Fathers of 1889." (O)
16. Blanchet, op. cit., p. 60.
17. CR, DeSmet, I, 277.
18. Ibid., I, 338-39.
19. A. M. A. Blanchet a Grassi, January 20, 1867. (O)
20. Cataido, MSS., "Sketch of St. Joseph's Mission," p. 32. (O)
21. ZW,p. 53.
22. Ibtd., p. 59.
23. IbiL,? 105.
24. MSS., "Historta Domus Sti Josephi." March 12. 1902. (O)
25. Cataido to Hughes, 1926. Copy. (O)
26. MSS., "Ltterae AnnuaeStt Joseph, 1927-28." (O)
CHAPTER VII
1. Joset, MSS., "Notes on Colville Mission." (O)
2. Ibtd.
3. Joset, Histotre de la Mission de Colville, d' Apres Notes du P. Joset, p. 7.
4. John A. Simms, Special Indian Agent, to Hon. P. Smith, Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, September 1, 1874, printed in The Report of the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs 1874, p. 328.
5. John A. Simms, Special Indian Agent, to Hon. . P. Smith, Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, September 1, 1875, printed in The Report of the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs 1871, p. 362.
6. MSS., "Diary of St. Francis Regis Mission," April 7, 1879. (O)
7. MSS., "Historta Domvs Sti Francis ci Regis" September 1, 1908. (O)
8. Caruana to Cataido, January 21, 1882, printed in WL, XII, 46.
9. "Necrologie du Pere Louis Ruellan," Jersey, August, 1885, p. 328.
10. Parkman, The Jesuits in "North America, p. 98.
11. Historicus [G. F. Weibel, S.J.], "Beginning and Progress of Catholicity in
Spokane," Gonzaga Magazine, III, 289.
12. Grassi to Giorda, November 10, 1874. (O)
13. Ibid.
14. De Rouge* a Cataido, May 9, 1886, printed in Mtsstone Delia ?rovincia
Torinese Delia Compagnia di Gesu etc., pp. 87-88.
15. De Rouge* a Canestrelli, May 8, 1886, ibid , p 86.
16. De Rouge" a De la Motte, July-August, 1886, ibid., p. 92.
17. Ibid., p. 94.
18. Ibid., p. 95.
19. Ibid., p. 96.
NOTES 243
20. Olivier de Rouge a M. Vandewalle, O.F.M., May 4, 1523. (O)
21. "St Mary's Mission School," The Indian Sentmel, 1916 (Father De Smet
Number), p. 15.
22. MS. "Diary of Reverend George de la Motte, S.J.," December 23, 1907. (O)
CHAPTER VIII
1. Caruana to Meagher, December 11, 1899. (O)
2. Ibid.
3. Cataldo, MSS., "Sketch of the Spokane Mission," p. 12. (O)
4. Ibid., p. 30.
5. Ruellan, Louts et Auguste Ruellan, Pretres de la Compagnte de Jesus > p. 81.
6. Jacquet to Weibel, January 12, 1912. (O)
7. Historicus [G. F. Weibel, S.J.], "Beginning and Progress of Catholicity in
Spokane,'* Gonzaga Magazine, III, 236.
8. Sister M. J. Baptista to Cataldo, April 13, 1888. (O)
9. Cataldo, MSS., "Sketch of the Spokane Mission," p. 63. (O)
10. Sister Mary Margaret to Cataldo, May 12, 1890. (O)
11. Cataldo to Bishop Junger, May 3, 1890. (O)
12. MS , "Diary of Reverend George de la Motte, S.J.," January 3, 1905. (O)
13. Smith to , April 15, 1886, printed in WL, XV, 197.
14. Jacquet to Weibel, January 12, 1912. (O)
15. M.S$.,"NotaeHtstorico-memortale$StiMichaelis." (O)
CHAPTER IX
1. Augustine Magloire Blanchet, first Bishop of Walla Walla, and later Bishop of
Nesqually, was born on August 22, 1797, in Saint Pierre. He completed his eccle-
siastical studies m Quebec and was ordained on June 3, 1821. For the following
twenty-one years he labored in various parishes and missions of French-Canada: at
Saint Gervais, Isle de Madeleine, Cheticamp, Saint Luc and Saint Jean d'Iberville,
Assumption, Saint Charles sur Richelieu, and from 1838 to 1842 he was cure* of
Les Cedres. From 1844 to 1846 he was a canon in Montreal. In this latter year he
was consecrated first Bishop of Walla Walla, one of the bishoprics within the metro-
politan see of his brother, Francis Norbert Blanchet, Archbishop of Oregon City.
Walla Walla remained as seat of the diocese until 1850, when it was moved to
Nesqually. Here the Bishop resided until his retirement in 1879. Eight years
later, on February 25, 1887, he died at Vancouver, B.C.
2. A. M A. Blanchet a Grassi, January 20, 1867. (O)
3. Caruana a Giorda, December 27, 1869. (O)
4. Historicus [G. F. Weibel, S.J.], "Fifty Years of Peaceful Conquest," Gonzaga
Magazine,V,l2S.
5. Cataldo, MSS., "Sketch of St. Joseph's Mission," p. 30.
6. C/.S. House Executive Document, 41st Congress, 3rd Sesston, No. 1449, p.
497.
7. Ibid.
8 James H. Wilbur, U. S. Indian Agent, to General T. J. McKenny, Supt. of
Indian Affairs, Washington Territory, August 10, 1871, printed in The Report of
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1871 f p. 285.
9. CR, DeSmet, IV, 1303, 1335.
10. MSS,, "Historic Domus St. Josephi, January, 1886 January, 1887." (O)
11. Garrand to Cataldo, April 4, 1888, printed in WL, XVII, 196.
244 NOTES
12. Ibtd, December 9, 188*, p. 192.
13. Grassi to Valente, May 26, 1874, printed in WL, DDE, 216.
14. Parodi to Cataldo, September 8, 1884. (O)
15. Parodi, MS., "Memoirs," September 30, 1907. (O)
16. Garrand to Cataldo, April 5, 1886. (O)
17. Parodi, MS., "Memoirs," p. 79. (O)
18. Seghers to Cataldo, September 24, 1885 (O)
19. Seghers to Palladino, November 26, 1885. (O)
20. Seghers to Cataldo, April 15, 188*. (O)
21. !&</., June 7, 188*. (O)
22. Barnum, Ltfe on the Alaska Misston, with an Account of the Foundation of
the Mission and the Work Performed, p. 2.
23. Letters Delia Provincia Tortnese, 1893-1896, p. 257.
24. Garrand a , May 23, 1895, printed in Mold, 1895, p. 83.
25. Ibid., p. 84.
26. Brovn to [A. Brown], November 17, 1900 (O)
27. MS., "Diary of Reverend Joseph M. Piet, S.J.," September 4, 1929, (O)
28. "Agreement," December 15, 1911. Typescript. (O)
CHAPTER X
1. Bougis a , November 13, 1885, printed in Jersey, April, 188*, p. 155.
2. Meyer to Cataldo, May 28, 188*. (O)
3. Drexel to Van Gorp, April 21, 1891. (O)
4. Ibid., 1991. (O)
5. Ibid., 1991. (O)
*. Vasta to , April 2*, 1 892, printed in WL, XXI, 1 8*.
7. Schmitt, MS., "Sketch of Holy Rosary Mission." (O)
8. MSS., "Lttterae Annnae Misstonis $ti Rosarv, 1907-1910." (O)
9. Ibul.
CHAPTER XI
1. O'Sullivan, MSS., "Notes on Catholic Oregon History," p. 3*. (O)
2. O'Connor, A. Brief History of the Diocese of Baker City t passim.
3. Gross to Van Gorp, September 7, 1897. (O)
4. MS., "Diary of Reverend George de la Motte, S.J.," February 2, 1905. (O)
5. MS., "Diary of Klamath Falls Parish," April 10, 191*. (O)
*. Dimier to Cataldo, September 7, 1911. (O)
'7. A. R. P. Praepositus Ledochowski ad Patres Proviae Cahfae, December 8,
1931. Copy. (O)
Bimiograplrg
ARCHIVAL MATERIAL
ARCHIVES OF THE OREGON PROVINCE OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS.
These archives contain both administrative and historical ma-
terial. The files of a dominantly administrative character were of
incidental assistance only. The greater part of the documents used
in the preparation of this sketch is preserved in the Historical
Archives of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus. This
collection is now in the process of being catalogued and is tempo-
rarily located at Gonzaga University's Graduate School of
Philosophy, Mount St. Michael's, Spokane, Washington. For
obvious reasons the archives are closed until this work is finished.
Historical items of particular value which will be available for
consultation at some future date are:
THE JOSET PAPERS. These writings of Joseph Joset, SJ. (1810-
1900), include manuscript sketches of the early missions, mis-
sionaries, and Indian tribes among whom the Jesuits labored.
There are several letters of Joset and some very interesting letters
to him from the U.S. Army officers in the Northwest during the
Indian wars of 1855-58.
THE CATALDO PAPERS. The diaries, letters, and manuscript sketches
of the Nez Perce* and the Spokane missions by Joseph Cataldo, S. J.
(1837-1928). This collection includes several hundred items of
great interest and value for the period of 1864-1928.
THE PRANDO PAPERS. The writings of Peter Prando, SJ. (1845-
1906), contain much information on the Crow Indians. His
letters, a few of which have been printed in the Woodstock
Letters, his colorful sketches of the Crow mission, and his opus
magnum on the "Traditions and Mythology of the Crow In-
dians," are preserved in this collection.
THE O'SULLIVAN PAPERS. Father J. M. O'Sullivan, S.J. (1850-
1932) , was one of the first historians of the Jesuits in the North-
west. Most of his work remains in the form of unpublished
245
246 BIBLIOGRAPHY
manuscripts. These are helpful on many points by reason of cor-
rections which had been made by the pioneer missionaries who
were alive at the time of the writing.
THE WEIBEL PAPERS. Letters, collected historical notes, manu-
scripts, and other varied historical writings of Father G. F.
Weibel, SJ. (1868-1935). Father Weibel did more work on
the subject of the Jesuits in the Northwest than anyone until
recent years. He wrote profusely in the Gonzaga Quarterly and
his uncompleted "History of the Diocese of Spokane" (type-
script) , has much that would have been lost otherwise.
INDIAN WRITINGS. There is an unusual collection of the writings in
the various Indian languages done by the different missionaries.
In this group of documents there are many unpublished manu-
scripts and the originals of several works that have been pub-
lished. Morvillo's monumental "Dictionary of Nez Perce"
(MS.) ; Cataldo's gospels, sermons, etc., in Nez Perce; Joset's
prayers and word lists in Coeur d'Alene; Boschi's Crow* gram-
mar; J. Post's scholarly Kalispel and Kootenai manuscripts, and
Giorda's Kalispel catechism (MS.), may be found here.
MISCELLANEOUS. Not so extensive, but none the less valuable, are
a few, as yet unpublished, letters of De Smet; sketches and letters
of Ravalli; a letter copybook of A. Hoecken; manuscript notes
on St. Peter's Mission by F. X. Kuppens; an intensely interesting
collection of Father Barcelo's letters; the letters and accounts of
Father Frederick Eberschweiler on the Assiniboin and Gros Ventre
tribes.
SPOKANE PUBLIC LIBRARY ARCHIVES. The collection in these ar-
chives has a few items valuable for Catholic Northwest history.
The little-known and unpublished letter of De Smet to Nicolet,
dated April 21, 1840, is preserved here.
MISCELLANEOUS. The baptismal, marriage, and burial records of
most of the missions and houses were consulted. Such ordinary
sources of Jesuit history as "House Diaries," "Historiae Domus,"
and "Litterae Annuae? were used wherever possible or necessary.
PRINTED MATERIAL
This bibliography makes no pretense at being exhaustive. The
tandard works of reference were consulted. The titles here set down
re of a more specialized character and therefore more helpful to the
tudent of the Catholic history of the Northwest.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 247
Annales de I 3 Association de la Propagation de la Foi. Lyons, France,
1822-34. Continued in
Annales de la Propagation de la FoL Lyons, France ,1834
ARENDZEN, WILLIAM, S.S.E. "The Cheyenne and Their Catholic
Mission," Indian Sentinel, II (April, 1920), 63-73.
[ARTHUIS, P.] The Old Mission Church. Spokane: Gonzaga College
Press, n.d.
BAETS, MAURICE DE. Mgr. Segbers, I'Apotre de I 9 Alaska, Ghent:
A. Siffer, 1896. (An English translation has appeared recently:
The Apostle of Alaska; Life- of the Most Reverend Charles John
Segkers. Translated from the French by Sister Mary Mildred.
Paterson, N. J.: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1943.)
BARNUM, F. Life on the Alaska Mission with an Account of the
foundation of the Mission and the Work Performed. Woodstock,
Md.: Woodstock Press, 1893.
BLANCHET, FRANCIS NORBERT. Historical Sketches of the Catholic
Church in Oregon. Portland: Catholic Sentinel, 1878.
BRONDEL, JOHN B. The Right Reverend John B. Brondel, a Me-
morial Helena: The State Publishing Co., 1904.
BROUILLET, J. B. A. Authentic Account of the Murder of Dr.
Whitman. Portland, Ore.: Metropolitan Press, 1869.
CASAGRANDI, S. De Claris Sodalibus Provinciae Taurinensis. Turin:
Eqves, 1906.
CHITTENDEN, HIRAM MARTIN, and ALFRED TALBOT RICHARDSON.
Life, Letters and Travels of Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet, S./.,
1801-1873. New York: Francis P. Harper, 1905. 4 vok
[CLOTILDA ANGELA, SISTER.] Ursulmes of the West, 1535-1935;
1880-1935, by an Ursuline. Everett, Wash.: Provincial Novi-
tiate, Ursuline Convent, 1936.
CODY, EDMUND R. History of the Coeur d'Alene Mission of the
Sacred Heart. Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1930.
COYOTE, BARNEY OLD. "An Indian's Appreciation," Indian Sen-
tinel,Tl (April, 1921), 295.
DAVIS, WILLIAM L. "Peter John De Smet, the Years of Preparation,
1801-1837," Pacific Norttnvest Quarterly, XXXII (April,
1941), 167-96.
DEYNOODT, F. P. /. De Sonet. Brussels: Alfred Vromant et Com-
pagnie, 1878.
D'H^RouviLLE, P. Vingt-cinq Ans chez les Peaux-rouges; Vie du
P. de la Motte, S./. Tournai: H. & L. Casterman, n.d.
DIOMEDI, ALEXANDER. Sketches of Modern Indian Life. Wood-
248 BIBLIOGRAPHY
stock, Md.: Woodstock Press, 1884. (Reprinted from Wood-
stock Letters.)
DURHAM, N. W. History of the City of Spokane and Spokane
County. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912. 3 vols.
GARRAGHAN, GILBERT J. The Jesuits in the Middle United States.
New York: The America Press, 1938. 3 vols.
GRAY, WILLIAM HENRY. A History of Oregon. Portland, Ore.:
Harris & Holman; New York: American News Co., 1870.
JOSET, JOSEPH. Histoire de la Mission de Colville, d'Apres les Notes
du P. Joset. No pub., n.d.
KAPPLER, CHARLES J. Indian Affairs Laws and Treaties. Washing-
ton, D. C: Government Printing Office, 1904. 2 vols.
Lettere della Provincia Tvrinese, 1 893-1 896. Turin: Giulio Speirani e
Figli, 1897.
Lettres de Mold (Lettres du Scholasticat de la Province de Lyon).
Bruxelles: Polleunis et Ceuterick, 1880 . Note: These Lettres
are consistently referred to as Lettres de Mold, although their
name was changed in 1897 to Lettres de Fourviere, and again in
1902 to Lettres de Canterbury.
Lettres des Scholastiques de Jersey. Bruges: Descle*e, de Brouwer et
Compagnie, 1881 .
MANRING, B. F. The Conquest of the Coeur d ) Alenes > Spokanes and
Palouses. Spokane, Wash.: Inland American Printing Co., 1912.
MARIE ANTOINETTE, MERE. Les Soeurs de la Providence en Oregon.
UJnstitut de la Providence, Vol. V. Montreal: Provincial
Mother House, 1937.
MENGARINI, GREGORY. "The Rocky Mountains; Memoirs of Fr.
Gregory Mengarini," Woodstock Letters, XVII (1888) , 298-309;
XVIE (1889), 25-43, 142-52.
Messenger of the Sacred Heart. New York: 1866 passim.
Missione della Provincia Torinese della Compagnia di Gem nelle
Montagne Rjcciose della America Settentrionale, Lettere dei PP.
Missionary. Turin: Giulio Speirani e Figli, 1887.
MORICE, A. G. History of the Catholic Church in "Western Canada.
Toronto: Musson Book Co., 1910.
O'CONNOR, D. A Brief History of the Diocese of Baker City. Baker
City, Ore.: Ryder Brothers, 1930.
O'CoNNOR, JAMES. "The Flathead Indians," Records of the Ameri-
can Catholic Historical Society, III (1883 -91), 85-110.
O'HARA, EDWIN V. Pioneer Catholic History of Oregon. Paterson,
N. J.: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1939.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 249
PALLADINO, LAWRENCE B. Anthony Ray alii, Memoir. Helena: Boos
&Co., 1884.
. Education for the Indian. New York: Benziger Brothers,
1892.
. Indian and White in the Northwest. Lancaster, Pa.: Wick-
ersham Publishing Co., 1922.
PARKMAN, FRANCIS. The Jesuits in North America. Boston: Little,
Brown and Co., 1867.
POINT, NICHOLAS. "Recollections of the Rocky Mountains," Wood-
stock Letter *,XI (1882), 298-321; XII (1883), 3-22.
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. Baltimore. Concilia Provincialia Balti-
Mori Habita ab Anno 1829 ad Annum 1840. Baltimore: John
Murphy Co., 1842.
RONAN, P. Historical Sketch of the Flathead Indian Nation. Helena:
Journal Publishing Co., 1890.
RUELLAN, L. Louis et Auguste 'Ruellan, Metres de la Compagnie de
Jesus. Angiers: Lachese et Dolbeau, 1885.
"St. Mary's Mission School," Indian Sentinel, 1916, pp. 14-18.
SISTERS OF ST. MARY OF OREGON. Souvenir of Golden Jubilee. Port-
land, Ore.: Catholic Sentinel Printery, 1936.
SMET, PIERRE- JEAN DE. Cinquante Nouvelles Lettres. Tournai: H.
& L. Casterman, 1858.
. Lettres des RR. PP. P. De Smet et A. Vercruysse. Ghent:
Vander Schelden, n.d.
. New Indian Sketches. New York: p. J. Kenedy, 1895.
. Origin, Progress and Prospects of the Catholic Mission to
the Rocky Mountains. Philadelphia: M. Fithian, 1843.
. Voyages aux Montagnes Rocheuses et une Annee de Sejour
chez les Trtbus Indiennes du Vaste Territoire de I'Oregon.
Malines: Hanicq, 1844.
-. Voyages dans I'Amerique Septentrionale Oregon. Brussels:
Closson, 1874.
SPLAWN, A. J. Ka-Mi-Akin, The Last Hero of the YaJtimas. Port-
land, Ore.: Kilham Stationery and Printing Co., 1917.
SULLIVAN, A. "Good Friday Among the Flathead," Indian Sentinel,
IV (April, 1924), 54.
UHLENBECK, C. C. Original Blackfoot Texts. Amsterdam: John
Miiller, 1911.
U.S. CONGRESS. Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain
the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from
the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Washington, D.C.:
Government Printing Office, 1855-60. 12 vols. in 13,
250 BIBLIOGRAPHY
U. S. INDIAN AFFAIRS OFFICE. Report of the Commissioner of In-
dian Affairs. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office,
1869 .
VICTOR, FRANCES FULLER. The River of the West. Toledo: R. W.
Bliss and Co., 1870.
WEIBEL, GEORGE F. "Beginning and Progress of Catholicity in Spo-
kane," Gonzaga Magazine, HI (1911-12), passim.
. "Fifty years of Peaceful Conquest," Gonzaga Magazine,
V (1913-14), 18-25, 70-78, 125-33, 179-87, 232-41, 293-303,
344-56,407-18,455-64, 520-32.
. Gonzaga's Silver Jubilee, a Memoir. Spokane, 1912.
. Rev. Joseph M. Cataldo, S.J. Spokane: 1928.
Woodstock Letters; a Record of Current Events and Historical Notes
Connected with the Colleges and Missions of the Society of Jesus.
Woodstock, Md.: Woodstock Press, 1872 .
Ind
,ex
Accolti, Fr. Michael, S.J., 42, 47, 49,
69,70
Adams, Ore., 210
Addy,Wash., 180
Adelphia College (Seattle), 196
Ahtanum, cf . St. Joseph's Mission
(Yakima)
Alaska Missions, 192-54
Albeni Falls, cf. St. Michael's Mission
(Albem Falls)
Alder Gulch, Mont., 95
Aleutian Islands, 192
Alexandria, Fort, 57
Anderson, A. A., 123
Andrews Spring, cf . Nilgwalko
Arapahoe Indians, 200, 202
Arlee, Mont., 84, 85
Arrow, Ida., 151
Ash Hollow, Nebr., 10
Ashland, Ore., 212
Assiniboin, Fort, 94
Assiniboin Indians, 86, 110, 112
Assumption Station (Upper Columbia) ,
60
Astor, John Jacob, 2
Athena, Ore., 210
Augusta, Mont., 94
Badger, Mont, 105
Bainbndge Island, Wash., 198
Bandmi, Fr. Joseph, S.J., 107, 116, 156
Bannack, Mont., 85
Barcelo, Fr. Peter, S.J., 114-16, 122,
124, 126, Biog. App., 217
Bear River, 11
Beaver Creek, Mont., 99
Beaverhead River, 22, 29
Beaverton, Ore., 212
Beckx, Fr. Peter, S.J., 147, 184
Belknap, Fort, 106, 107, 109, 111
Bellingham, Wash., 198
Belma, Wash., 191
Benton, Fort, 87, 88, 93-94, 111
Bidwell, John, 27
Big Face (Flathcad Chief), 19, 23
Big Horn River, 23
Big Horn Valley, 115
Biledot, , 65
Bilhngs, Mont., 121
Birch Creek, Mont., 91, 100, 101-2,
105
Bird Horse (Crow Chief), 122
Blackfoot Indians, 22, 42, 66, 73, 86,
88, 100, 101, 113
Black Tail, Mont., 105
Blanchet, Rt. Rev. Augustine M., Bishop
of Nesqually, 143, 182, 184; Chap,
IX, note 1, p. 243
Blanchet, Rt. Rev. Francis N., Arch-
bishop of Oregon City, 4ff,, 36, 45,
46, 70, 142; Chap I, note 9, p. 236
Blanc, Rt. Rev. Anthony, Bishop of
New Orleans, 24
Blood Indians, 86, 109, 112
Bolduc, Fr. J. B., 1
Bonner, Mont., 85
Bossburg, Wash., 162
Bougis, Fr. Peter, S.J., 103, Biog. App.,
217
Boulder, Mont., 95, 99
Boulet,Mgr. J, B., 183, 184
Bozeman, Mont., 99
Bremerton, Wash., 198
Brewster, Wash., 167
British Columbia, 162; cf. Fraser River,
New Caledonia, Rossland
Brogan, Fr. James M., S.J., 197
Brondel, Rt. Rev. John B., Bishop of
Helena, 85, 97, 125, 126
Brouillet, Mgr. J. B. A., 49, 207
Browning, Mont., 105
Bryan, William Jennings, 175
Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions,
106, 117, 166-67
Burke, Ida., 141, 178,180
Burnett, Peter H., 48
Butte, Mont,, 99
Butter Creek, Ore., 210
California, 17, 42, 48, 49, 59, 69, 70,
203,206,214,215
Canestrelli, Fr. Philip, S.J., 84, 170,
Biog. App., 218
Canton, Mont., 99
251
2*2
INDEX
Canyon Ferry, Mont., 99
Carfagno, Bro. Achille, S.J., 143
Caruana, Fr. Joseph, S.J., 159, 168, 184,
186, 187, 190, 191, Biog. App., 218
Cashmere, Wash., 167
Cataldo, Fr. Joseph, S.J., 78, 98, 135,
138, 143-45, 147-50, 159, 169-71,
177, 184, 192, 193, 200, 201, 207,
208, Biog. App., 218
Cave Gulch, Mont., 99
Cavern of New Monresa, Chap. IV,
note 25, p. 239
Cayuse Indians, 74, 142
Centerville, Wash., 191
Chariot, Chief, 73,81, 84
Chelan Indians, 163, 164
Chelan, Wash., 162
Cheney, Wash., 141, 180
Chester, Mont., 112
Chewelah, Wash., 141, 161
Cheyenne Indians, 28, 123-27
Chilcotin Indians, 57
Chimney Rock, 16; Chap. II, note 21,
p. 237
Chinook, Mont., Ill
Chirouse, Fr. Eugene Casimir, O.M.I.,
182,207
Choteau, Mont., 94
"Christ Dead Procession," 82-83, 157
Christie, Rt. Rev. Alexander, Arch-
bishop of Oregon City, 212
Claessens, Bro. William, S.J., 26, 27, 65,
69, 84
Clancy, Mont., 99
Clark Fork River, 129
Clarkston, Wash., 151
Clayton, Wash., 161, 162
Clearwater River, 143
Cleveland, Grover, President of U.S.,
107
Cody, Wyo, 205
Coeur d'Alene City, Ida., 178
Coeur d'Alene Indians, 34-36, 38-44,
74, 130, 137, 138, 144, 146; cf. Dio-
medi; Joset; Ravalli; Sacred Heart
Mission
Coeur d'Alene Mission, cf. Sacred Heart
Mission
Coeur d'Alene River, 44, 129, 136, 141
Coif ax, Wash., 151
Colville, Fort, 6, 32, 34, 35, 50, 58, 62,
155,156
Colville, Wash., 141, 162, 167
Congiato, Fr. Nicholas, S.J., 70, 87, 133,
134, 183, Biog. App., 219
Conrardy, Fr. Louis, 207, 208
Corvallis, Mont., 85
Corvallis, Ore., 212
Cottonwood, Ida., 151
Council Bluffs, 8, 9, 13-15, 21, 23
Cowlitz, Mission on, 4, 3 6
Coyote, Barney Old, 122
Craig, Mont., 94
Crimont, Rt. Rev. Joseph R., S.J.,
Vicar-Apostolic of Alaska, 197
Crow Agency, Mont., 121
Crow Creek, Mont., 85, 99
Crow Indians, 22, 23, 37, 67, 98, 113-
17, 119-21, 125
Cunningham, Br. Bernard, S.J., 170
Curlew, Wash., 162
Cushman Indian School, 198
Cusick, Wash,, 161, 162, Chap. IV,
note 25, p. 239
Custer, Fort, 114, 116, 122
Ouster's Massacre, 123
Daisy, Wash., 162
Damiani, Fr. Joseph, S. J., 1 07
D'Aste, Fr. Jerome, S.J., 96
Dearborn River, 89, 94
Deeney, Fr. William, S J., 197
Deer Lodge Creek, 29
Deer Lodge, Mont., 99
De la Motte, Fr. George, S.J., cf. La
Motte, Fr George de, S J.
Demers, Rt. Rev. Modeste, Bishop of
Victoria, 4ff., 35, 36, 45, 142, Chap.
I, note 10, p. 236
De Smet, Fr. Peter John, S.J., cf. Smet,
Fr. Peter John de, S J.
Devon, Mont., 112
De Vos, Fr. Peter, S.J., 41, 43, 47, 48,
50, 51,62,70, 131, 153
Diamond City, Mont., 99
Dinner, Fr. Augustine, S.J., 212
Diomedi, Fr. Alexander, S.J., 77, 85,
137, Biog. App., 219
Drexel, Mother Katherine, 102, 140,
148, 201-5, 208, 209
Drips, Andrew, 15; Chap. II, note 19,
p 237
Dunkirk, Mont., 112
Eagle City, Ida., 178
Eatonville, Wash., 198
Eberschweiler, Fr. Frederick, S.J., acvi,
94, 107, 108, 111, 112, Biog. App.,
220
Echo, Ore., 210
Education of Indians, 75-77, 119, 157
Ellensburg, Wash., 165, 190
Ellis, Fort, 99
Ephrata, Wash., 180
Eyler, Fr. Joseph, 125
Eysvogels, Fr. Anthony, S J., 26
INDEX
253
Feusi, Fr. Balthassar, S.J., 110, 202,
Biog. App., 220
Finnegan, Rt. Rev George J., Bishop
of Helena, 85
Fitzgerald, J., 89
Fitzpatrick, Thomas, 27, 28, Chap III,
note 3, p 238.
Flatbow Indians, 60, 72
Flathead Indians, 5-12, 17-22, 24, 26,
28, 36, 42, 53, 60, 67, 72, 73, 141,
142; cf. Chariot; Mengarim; Ravalh,
Fr. Anthony j St. Ignatius Mission;
St. Mary's Mission (Mont.); Smet,
Fr. Peter John de.
Fletcher, Ida., 151
Florence, Mont., 85, 94
Flynn, Fr. William, 86
Folchi, Fr. Aloysms, S J., xv, 178-80,
2 01, Biog. App., 221
Fraeb, Henry, 15; Chap. II, note 19, p.
237
Fraser River, 57
Freewater, Ore., 210
French Prairie, cf . St. Louis, Ore.
Frenchtown, Mont., 84, 8 5
Fruitland, Wash,, 162
Fuller, Frank, 193
Gallatm River, 23
Gallatm Valley, Mont., 99
Garfield, James A., 81
Garrand, Fr. Victor, S.J., 166, 187, 188,
191, 194, Biog. App., 222
Gazzoh, Fr. Gregory, S.J., 73, 131
George, Fort, 57
Ghost Dance, 127
Gibbon, Ore., 210
Gig Harbor, Wash., 198
Gildford, Mont., 112
Giorda, Fr. Joseph, S.J., 86, 87, 89, 95,
106, 146, 156, 168, 184, 216, Biog.
App., 222
Glasgow, Mont., Ill
Glendive, Mont., 121
Glorieux, Rt. Rev. A. J., Bishop of
Boise, 148
Goetz, Fr. Anthony, S.J., 59, Biog.
App., 222
Goldcndale, Wash., 191
Gold rushes, 48, 49, 88, 95, 136, 155
Gold Springs, Ida., 151
Goldstone, Mont., 105
Goller,~lT- Herman, S.J., 206, Biog.
App., 223
Gonzaga College, 99, 173-75, 180, 181
Gordon, Nebr., 205
Grangeville, Ida., 151
Grant's Indian Policy, 100, 106, 185
Grassi, Fr. Urban, S.J., 74, 96, 107,
115, 143, 156, 163, 170, 184, 186,
190, 208, Biog App., 223
Gray, W. H., 10, 142
Great Falls, Mont., 94
Green River, 16, 18, 28
Gross, Rt. Rev. William H., Archbishop
of Oregon City, 208-10
Gros Ventre Indians, 86, 110, 112
Guidi, Fr. Joseph, S.J., 90
Hall, Fort, 28, 29, 42
Hamilton, Mont., 85
Hardin, Mont, 121
Harney, Gen. William S., 74
Harrington, Wash., 180
Havre, Mont., Ill, 112
Hay Springs, Nebr., 205
Heart Butte, Mont., 105, 106
Helena, Mont., 90, 95-98, 116, 128
Hell Gate, Mont., 84
Hell Gate River, 29
Henrys Lake, 21
Hermiston, Ore ,210
Hill, James J., xv
Hoecken, Fr. Adrian, S.J., 41, 43, 51,
52, 70, 72, 73, 86, 87, 129, Biog.
App., 224
Holy Cross, Ore., 211
Holy Family Mission, 94, 100-5, 112,
128
Holy Heart of Mary Station, 60
Holy Names Academy (Spokane), 173,
175
Holy Rosary Mission, S. Dakota, 204-6
Hoover, , 127, 128
Hot Springs, Mont., 99
Hudson's Bay Company, 4, 32, 34, 35,
62, 130, 153
Huet, Bro. Charles, S.J., 26, 27, 39, 44
Hunters, Wash., 162
Huysbrecht, Bro. Francis, S.J., 42
Ignace, Old, 10
Ignace, Young, 11, 42
Immaculate Conception Parish, Seattle,
195-97
Imoda, Fr. John B. C , S.J., 87, 90, 94,
Biog. App., 224
Independence, Mo., 23
Independence Rock, 16; Chap. II, note
22, p. 237
Infatigable, 46
"Jack" (Fr. Folchi's horse), 178, 179
Jackson Hole, 18
Jacquet, Fr. Alpysius, S. J , 172, 178,
Biog. App., 225
Jefferson, Mont., 95
254
INDEX
Jefferson River, 22
Jocko Reservation, 73, 84, 85
Joseph, Chief, 74, 137, 147, 148, 207
Joseph, Young, 148
Joset, Fr. Joseph, S.J., 41-44, 51, 58, 62,
69-71, 73, 129, 131, 133, 134, 153,
154, 156, 214, 216, Biog. App., 225
Judith Basin, Mont , 94
Juneau, Alaska, 192
Junger, Rt. Rev. Aegidius, Bishop of
NesquaUy, 183,190, 194
Kalispel Indians, 32-34, 53, 54, 67, 72,
153
Kalispels, Bay of the, 61
Kapowsin, Wash., 198
Kenrick, Rt. Rev. Francis Patrick,
Bishop of Philadelphia, 24
Keogh, Fort, 124, 125
Kettle Falls Indians, 35, 62
Keuterville, Ida., 151
Kippen, Ida,, 151
Klamath Falls, Ore., 211
Klikitat Indians, 190,191
Kock, Bro. de, S.J., 87
Kootenai Indians, 34, 59, 72, 73, 190
Kremlin, Mont., 112
Kuppens, Fr Francis X., S.J., 88, 95, 96
Lakeview, Ore., 211
Lakosken, Joseph, 144
La Motte, Fr. George de, S.J., xv, 82,
216, B^og. App., 226
Lander, Wyo., 205
Langlois, Fr. Anthony, 49
Lapwai,Ida., 143, 151
Lapwai Indian Agency, 143
Laure, Fr. Augustine, S.J., 194, Biog.
App., 226
Ledger, , 15; Chap. II, note, 19,
p. 237
Leland,Ida., 151
Lenihan, Rt. Rev. Mathias C, Bishop of
Great Falls, 123
Lewis and Clark Expedition, 2, 131
Lewiston, Ida, 141, 143-45, 148, 150,
151
Lewistown, Mont., 94
Lindesmith, Fr. E. W. J., 125
Liquor among the Indians, 93, 140, 147,
155, 165,204
Little Badger Creek, 105
Little Badger, Mont., 106
Little Faro, 67
Little Robe, 67
Little Rocky Mountains, 107-9
Lodge Pole, Mont., Ill
Lolo, Mont., 85
Long, Dr. J. E., 48
McGean, Bro Peter, S.J., 41, 53, 71, 72
McHugh, Thomas C., 196
Mackin, Fr. Charles, S.J., 110, 176,
Biog. App., 227
McLoughhn, Dr. John, 2, 3, 6, 45, 46
McNeil Island, 198
Maginnis, Fort, 94
Magri, Bro. Vincent, S.J., 41, 55, 86, 87,
131
Manresa Hall (Port Townsend, Wash ) ,
199
Man-who-rides-a-horse, 116-17
Marias River, 87
Marquette College (Yakima), 189
Marquette League, 86, 149
Marty, Fr. Martin, O.S B , 204
Marysville, Mont., 99
Meeteetse, Wyo., 205
Melrose, Ida., 151
Menetrey, Fr. Joseph, S.J., 71, 74, 84,
99, 156, Biog. App., 227
Mengarini, Fr. Gregory, S.J., 26, 33, 36,
38, 43, 64, 65, 67, 214, Biog. App.,
228
Mercer Island, Wash., 198
Merrill, Ore., 211
Mesplie, Fr. Toussaint, 207
Methodists, 90, 100, 106, 114, 183, 185
Miles City, Mont., 121, 125, 128
Miles, Nelson A., 124
Milk River, 111
Mineral, Wash., 198
Mirage Flats, Nebr., 205
Missoula, Mont., 84, 98
Mitchell, Mont., 94
Mitgan River, 163
Mohler, Ida., 151
Molson, Wash., 162
Monaghan, James, 176
Monaghan, Robert, 175
Monroe, Ore., 212
Montana City, Mont., 95
Monteith, John B., 145
Monte Virgine Church, Seattle, 197
Morgan, J. B., 89
Mormons, 68
Morvillo, Fr. Anthony, S.J., 147, 207,
208
Mount St. Michael's (Spokane), 181
Moxee, Wash., 191
Mullan, Ida., 141, 178
Mullan, John, 44, 72, 134
Mullan Road, 44, 169
Murray, Ida., 141, 178
INDEX
255
Nerinckx, Fr. Charles, 13; Chap. II,
note 14, p. 136
New Caledonia, cf. Nobili, Fr. John,
S.J.
New Orleans, La., 24
Newport, Ore., 212
Newport, Wash., 162, 178
Nezperce, Ida., 151
Nez Perce* Indians, 10, 142-44, 146-48
Nilgwalko, 135
Ninusize, 163
Nobili, Fr. John, S.J., 42, 47, 49, 56-59,
214
Northern Pacific Railroad, 98, 170, 187,
188
Northport, Wash., 162
North Yakima, cf . Yakima, Wash.
Nulato, Alaska, 193
Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 182, 189,
190
O'Connor, Rt. Rev. James, Bishop of
Omaha, 76, 124, 200
O'Dea, Rt. Rev. Edward J., Bishop of
Seattle, 176, 196, 197
Ogalala Sioux, 204
O 'Gorman, Rt. Rev. James, Bishop of
Omaha, 96
Okanagan Lake, 59
Okanogan, Fort, 3 6
Okanogan, Wash, 162, 167
Okinagan Indians, 35, 190, 191
Old Agency, Mont., 106
Omak, Wash., 162
O'Reilly, Rt. Rev. Charles J., Bishop
of Baker City, 211
Orient, Wash., 1 62
Orofino, Ida., 151
Oroville, Wash., 162
Orth, Rt. Rev. Bertram, Bishop of
Victoria, 207
Osborne, Ida., 178
Otter Creek, 125
Our Lady of Lourdes Parish (Spokane),
172, 173, 176
Outlook, Wash., 191
Owen, Ma^or John, 69
Ozanam Home (Tacoma), 198
Palladino, Fr. Lawrence, S.J., 99, Biog.
App., 228
Palouse Indians, 133
Pandosy, Fr. Charles M., O.M.I., 182,
207
Parker, E. $., 186
Parker, Samuel, 142
Parkman, Francis, 160
Parodi, Fr. Louis, S J., 166, 190
Peck, Fort, 102, 111
Peck, Ida., 151
Pend d'Oreille Indians, 19-21, 32, 60,
72, 73; Chap. IV, note 19, p. 239
Pendleton, Ore, 210
Pennth, Wash., 180
Peone, Baptist, 168
Peone's Prairie, 169, 170
Peoples Creek, 107
Piegan Indians, 86, 112
Pierre's Hole, 19,21
Pme Ridge, S. Dakota, 204
Pius IX, Pope, 147
Plains, Mont., 8f
Platte River, 28
Plenty Coups, 122
Plush, Ore., 211
Point, Fr. Nicholas, S.J., 26, 28, 33, 38,
39, 43, 44, 51, 86, 106, 113, Biog.
App., 229
Poison, Mont., 85
Polygamy, 51
Pomeroy, Wash., 151
Ponzighone, Fr Paul M., S.J., 200
Porcupine, 127
Potawatomi Mission, 8, 17
Prando, Fr. Peter, S.J., 90-92, 100, 101,
115-19, 126, 205, Biog. App., 229
Prefontame, Fr. F. X., 194
Presbyterians, 146, 153
Prosser, Wash., 191
Protestants, 123, 138, 142, 145, 146,
153, 185,202,203
Provencher, Rt. Rev. Joseph N., Titular
Bishop of Juliopolis, 2, 3, 4, 6; Chap.
I, note 3, p. 235
Prudhomme, Gabriel, 28
Pryor Creek, Mont., 122
Pullman, Wash., 180
Radersburg, Mont., 99
Ragaru, Fr. Aloysius, S.J., Biog. App.,
230
Rappaghosi, Fr. Philip, S.J., 90, 91, 106,
Biog. App., 230
Rathdrum, Ida, 178
Ravalli, Fr. Anthony, S J., 42, 44, 47,
62, 65, 68, 71, 73, 84, 86, 130, 131,
133, 134, 153, 155, 214, Biog. App.,
230
Ravalli, Mont., 85
Razzini, Fr. James, S.J., 146
Rebmann, Fr. James, S.J., 177, Biog.
App, 231
Red Cloud, 205
Red Rock Lake, 21
Reith, Ore, 210
Renton, Wash., 198
256
INDEX
Reubens, Ida. 151
Ricard, Fr. Pascal, O.M.I., 182
Riel, Louis, xvi
Riverton, Wyo., 205
Robaut, Fr. Aloysius, S.J., 139, 153,
Bxog. App., 231
Roothan, Fr. John, S.J., 9, 12, 41, 48
Rosati, Rt. Rev. Joseph, Archbishop of
St. Louis, 9, 11,12
Rosebud, Mont., 124
Rosebud, S. Dakota, 203
Rossland, B.C. 162, 167
Rotten Grass Creek, 115, 116
Rouge*, Fr. Stephen de, S.J., 162-67,
Biog. App., 232.
Rudyard, Mont., 105
Ruellan, Fr. Louis, S.J., 159, 171, 172,
Biog. App., 232
Rushville, Nebr., 205
Russell, Ida., 151
Sacred Heart Mission, 38-44, 50, 63,
129-41, 143, 144, 148, 156, 168,
169, 180, 184
Sacred Heart Parish (Spokane), 176
St. Aloysius Parish (Spokane), 177
St. Andrew's Mission, 207-11
St. Anne's Parish (Spokane), 177
St. Ann's Mission (Lodge Grass,
Mont., 123
St. Charles' (Pryor Creek, Mont.), 122
St. Francis Borgia Station, 60
St. Francis' Mission (S. Dakota), 203-4
St. Francis Regis (Chewelah), 153-54
St. Francis Regis' Mission, 63, 148, 156-
62, 191
St. Francis Regis' Station (Upper Co-
lumbia), 61
St. Francis Xavier Mission (Mont.),
113-21, 128
St. Francis Xavier Mission (Ore.), 46-
48, 50, 63
St. Francis Xavier, Novitiate of, 213
St. Francis Xavier Parish, cf. Missoula,
Mont.
St. Francis Xavier Parish (Spokane),
177
St. Ignatius College (San Francisco),
174
St. Ignatius Mission (Mont.), 50, 72,
74-83, 128, 141, 169, 180
St. Ignatius Mission (Wash.), 49-55,
70-72, 153
St. Ignatius Parish (Portland), 212
St. Ignatius Parish (Seattle), 198
St. Ignatius Preparatory School (Spo-
kane), 172
St. Joe River, 39, 129, 141
St. John Berchman's, cf . Arlee, Mont.
St. Joseph Labre's Mission (Mont.),
123-28,201
St. Joseph's College (Ore.), 49
St. Joseph's Mission (Idaho), 141-52,
180
St. Joseph's Mission (Upper Colum-
bia), 59
St Joseph's Mission (Yakima), 182-91
St. Joseph's Parish (Seattle), 196, 197
St. Joseph's Parish (Spokane), 176
St. Leo's Parish (Tacoraa), 198
St. Louis, Mo., 9-11, 15, 20, 23-26, 36
St. Louis, Ore., 49
St. Mary's Mission (Okanogan), 162-67
St. Mary's Mission ( Stevens ville,
Mont.), 29-31, 33, 36, 38, 53, 60, 62,
64-70, 84, 128, 130
St. Mary's Parish, cf. Pendleton, Ore.
St. Michael's Mission (Albem Falls),
51-53
St. Michael's Mission (Spokane), 169-
71, 177
St. Onge, Fr. Louis N., 183-85
St. Patrick's Parish (Hillyard), 177
St. Paul's Mission (Mont.), 94, 106,
112, 128
St. Paul's Mission (Wash.), 61-63, 131,
153-56
St. Paul's Mission (Willamette), 6, 45,
46
St. Peter's Mission (Mont.), 86-93, 96,
99, 112, 128
St. Peter's Station (Wash.), 60
St. Rose's Church (Culdesac), 151
St. Stanislaus Parish, cf. Lewiston, Ida.
St. Stephen's Mission, 200-3
St. Vincent's Academy (Helena), 97
Salmon River Billy, 142
Sanders, Mont., 8 5
Sandpoint, Ida., 178
Sanpoil Indians, 1 54
Seattle College, 194-97
Seattle, Wash., 189, 194-98
Seghers, Rt. Rev. Charles J., 79, 192,
193, 208
Seltis, Chief, 169
Shaw, Fort, 87, 94
Sherman, Fort, 172
Shoshone Indians, cf. Snake Indians
Sialm, Fr. P. F., S.J., 203
Sifton, Fr. John B., S.J., 203
Signay, Rt. Rev. Joseph, Archbishop of
Quebec, 4; Chap. I, note 7, p, 235
Siletz Reservation, 212
Silver Bow, Mont., 99
Silver Creek, Mont., 95
Silver Lake, Ore., 211
INDEX
257
Simcoe, Fort, 191
Simpson, Gov. George, 4
Siouxwap Indians, 5 6, 5 8
Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, 97
Sisters of Chanty of Providence, 74,
77-79, 137, 138, 156, 157, 176, 187,
188
Sisters of the Good Shepherd, 176
Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and
Mary, 172, 173, 176, 177, 195
Sisters of Mercy, 208
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, 44,
46, 49, 50
Sisters of St Joseph, 149
Sisters of St. Francis, 175-77, 208
Sitka, Alaska, 192
Sitting Bull, 123
Skoyelpi Indians, 61
Smallpox, 154
Smet, Fr. Peter John de, S.J., 8ff., 13-
24, 26, 28, 29, 32-39, 41-48, 50-53,
58, 61, 64-67, 74, 86, 97, 106, 113,
135, 142, 143, 162, 168, 213, 215,
216
Snake Indians, 10, 17, 18
Snake River, 18, 21
Soap Creek, Mont., 122
Soderim, Fr Tiberius, S.J., 41, 42
Soer, Fr. Aloysius, S.J., 149, Biog. App.,
233
"Soldiers of the Sacred Heart," 139,
147
South Pass 16; Chap. II, note 23, p. 237
Spalding, Ida., 151
Spaulding, H. H,, 142, 145
Specht, Bro. Joseph, S.J., 26, 27
Spokane Falls and Northern R.R., 179
Spokane Falls, cf . Spokane, Wash.
Spokane Indians, 3 6, 74, 133
Spokane River, 39
Spokane, Wash., 141, 168-81
Sprague, Wash., 141, 180
Steptoe, Col. E. J, 133
Stevens, Isaac L, 73, 132, 134
Stevensville, Mont., 8 5
Stlacken Indians, 156
Stuart Lake, 57
Stuptup, Chief, 143, 144
Sun River, 87, 89, 94
Suquamish, Wash., 198
Swordbearer, 115, 116
Tampico, Wash., 191
Tekoa,Wash., 141, 151
Terry's Landing, Mont., 114
Thompson Falls, Mont,, 85
Three Forks, Mont., 99
Tonasket, Wash , 162
Tongue River, 124
Toppenish, Wash., 191
Tosi, Fr. Pascal, S.J., 193, Biog. App.,
233
Turin, Province of, 214
Two Medicine Creek, 102
Uhlenbeck, C. C, 104
Ukiah, Ore., 210
Umatilla Indians, 147-48, 207-9
Umatilla, Ore., 147-48, 167, 210
Union Gap, Wash., 187
Uniontown, Wash., 151
Unionville, Mont., 99
Ursuhne Sisters, 78, 79, 84, 93, 102,
109, 116, 117, 122, 125, 126, 128
Valley, Wash., 178
Vancouver, Fort, 4, 6, 34-36, 42, 44,
45,47, 53, 56, 142, 168
Van der Pol, Fr. John, S.J., 128, Biog.
App., 233
Van der Velden, Fr. Aloysius, S.J., 126-
28
Van Gorp, Fr. Leopold, S.J., 176, 201,
Biog. App., 234
Vanzina, Fr. James, S.J., 96, 163
Vercruysse, Fr. Louis, S.J., 42, 47, 49,
62, 153, 154, 168
Verhaegen, Fr. Peter, S.J., 12, 15, 26
Verimllion, Fort, 23
Vest, George G., 76-77
Victor, Chief, 71
Victor, Mont., 85
Virginia City, Mont., 95, 96
Vrebosch, Fr. Aloysius, S.J., 122, 123,
Biog. App., 234
Walker, Elkanah, 153
Walker's Prairie, 153
Wallace, Ida., 141, 180
Walla Walla, Fort, 6, 36
Walla Walla, Wash , 1 3 6, 1 5 1
Wapato, Wash., 191
Wardner, Ida., 141, 178
Warman, Mont., 121
Washakie, Wyo., 205
Waterville, Wash., 167
Wenatchee Indians, 190
Wenatchec, Wash., 167
Wernz, Fr. Francis X, S.J., 203
Westport, Mo., 15, 16, 23, 26, 41
White Sulphur Springs, Mont., 99
White Swan, Wash., 191
White Tail, Mont., 105
Whitman, Marcus, 142
258 INDEX
Whitman Massacre, 74, 143, 182, 207 Yakima City, cf, Yakima, Wash.
Wilbur, J. H., 183-8* Yakima Indians, 133, 144, 182
Willamette Valley, 2, 6, 48 Yakima, Wash., 166, 187, 188, 191
Winchester, Ida., 1 5 1 Yellowstone River, 23
Wind River, Wyo., 127, 205 Yoakam, George, 124, 126
Wolf creek, Mont , 94 Yukon, Alaska, 192
Woodside, Ida., Ul
Wo-vo-ka, 127
Wright, Col. George, 134 Zerbinatti, Fr. Peter, SJ,, 41, 42
Wyola, Mont ,121 Zortman, Mont., 1 1 1